Sherlock's Flower
by hazelsherlock
Summary: Series 2 Spoilers- 1 year after Sherlock's death, and things are changing dramatically for him and John. Not only has the danger level increased, a new factor has been brought into the equation, ensuring that nothing will be the same ever again... All credit to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss for the original characters, all of the rest are my own ideas.
1. Chapter 1

_**At times, Sherlock had disappointed me. He had scared me. He had almost got me killed several times, not to mention my girlfriend. But at other times, he amazed me. He had astounded me. But after everything, there was nothing in this entire universe that could prepare me for what was about to happen over the next year…**_

* * *

I was walking down Baker Street, like the way I used to do. It was the 15th of January, 2013. Exactly a year since Sherlock's death. I hadn't visited Baker Street much. It just brought back memories. Sometimes bad, like me and Sherlock arguing. Sometimes good, like him going to get the milk. Either way, it was hard to stop crying. I couldn't even go into Speedy's. I just reminded me of the time me and Mycroft discussed whether or not we should tell Sherlock the truth about Irene Adler.

I usually arranged to meet up with our mutual friends elsewhere in London, somewhere that didn't remind me of Sherlock. That was a difficult task: in the 18 months that we had known each other, we had visited most places in London. Most of them were past crime scenes or a suspect's house. I had met up with Mrs Hudson in this little café just off the river Thames on numerous occasions, as well as Molly and Greg in the pub by County Hall. Molly had invited me to have lunch with her at Bart's, as did Greg at Scotland Yard. I had to decline. Other than 221B, those were the two other places that Sherlock spent most of his time.

But Ella, my therapist, says going back to 221B will help. Last time she was right. 'I promise that writing a blog about everything that happens to you will make you feel better.' But to be honest, I think it only helped because I had Sherlock with me every step of the way. And he didn't even know how much he meant to me.

So. Here I am. Looking up at the door. I take my hands out of my pockets. Walk up to it. Knock on it. I can hear nothing from inside the flat. Is that a sign then? Should I turn and run? Will I start crying the moment Mrs Hudson answers? I should go, shouldn't I? Too late.

'John! So glad you could make it. Greg and Molly said they'll be here soon. Come in, come in.' I entered the hallway, taking in the all too familiar smell of Mrs Hudson's perfume. What was it that Sherlock said it was? Something that contained flowers? I don't know, but he definitely said he wrote an article about it for his website. I hadn't visited his website in ages. Why would I have needed to? There would be nothing new there. I sat down in the kitchen as Mrs Hudson made me a cup of tea. The same seat after the-American-'falling'-out-of-the-window incident. Since then, she had got new bins from the council.

A knock at the door was heard. 'I'll get it love; you rest your leg.' Mrs Hudson went out into the hallway to welcome in whoever it was. Another thing I forgot to mention. The physcosomatic condition on my leg had returned, due to the traumatic events of Sherlock's death, Ella said. It's better than when I first had it though, so it's not all bad news.

'John! How are you?'

'Fine, thanks for asking Greg. And yourself?'

'Not bad, just the usual pressure at work. Molly said you got back together with Sarah after starting work back at her surgery.'

'Yeah, she said at least she won't kidnapped on any of our dates this time around.'

Bad joke.

'Yes, of course. I doubt you know anyone who specialises in Chinese circus theatrics. Molly sent me a text saying she may be 10 minutes late and she'd meet us at the cemetery for 10 o'clock.'

'Well, we best get going then, it's quarter to already. I'll just get my coat on, boys.'

We exited 221B, and got in Greg's car. The car journey to St. Woolos Cemetery was a quiet one, much like the one me and Mrs Hudson took just under a year ago. The only sound was the tooting of the car horns and Greg occasionally cursing under his breath if an idiot pulled out at the wrong time. I wasn't really concentrating properly.

'John? John, come on. We're here.'

'Sorry, Greg.' I got out of the car to see Molly already hugging Mrs Hudson. Molly looked good. In fact, the only one of us who didn't look like they were about to burst into tears at the thought of visiting Sherlock's grave again.

'John, how are you?' I received a hug off Molly too before replying.

'Ah, you know. A little shaky. But it's to be expected.'

'Of course. And you, Greg?'

'Same as John.' She nodded slowly, and began to bite her bottom lip.

'Shall we go then?' She had aimed it at me, knowing that I was possibly the one most vulnerable to tears. I nodded.

'Yeah, let's get it over with.'

She linked her arm in mine and as a group of four we headed over to a quiet corner of St Woolos, where the tree was. Mycroft had ensured that no other grave would disturb his brother's resting place, so getting him buried under the tree was no problem; no one else wanted to be buried under a tree where they might not be seen, and besides, who want to be buried next to Sherlock 'The fraud' Holmes other than me? I still don't want to believe what he told me, and I'd still jump off the roof at Bart's just to join my best friend in heaven.

Mrs Hudson and Molly both laid a bouquet of roses on the grave: Mrs Hudson's were white, Molly's were black. Two of his favourite colours. Plain and simple. The way he liked it. I had to turn away before my eyes betrayed me. What was the point? Molly and Mrs Hudson had already started to cry, and Greg was on the brink of tears too. So I turned back and began crying. Greg put his arm around me, and began to say something, something directed at the grave. When he had finished, Molly spoke, then Mrs Hudson. 'Would you like to say something, John?'

I tilted my head slightly, telling them I wanted to be alone with Sherlock. Mrs Hudson nodded. 'We'll be in the car love. Don't be too long now.'

They walked off towards the church and I was left alone by the grave in silence.

'It's been a year now, Sherlock. And I honestly, honestly believed that you would be back. In the past, you had never failed to surprise me, and you've surprised me now by not doing a reappearing act. So I guess I'll have to admit the fact that you are really dead.' I swallowed hard, to try and stop myself, but I cried anyway. 'But no matter how many years it is until I die, I will never believe that you were a fraud. Moriarty is real, always has been, always will be. And, I know I didn't say it the last time I was here, less than a year ago now, but, I love you. Not in the way that Angelo or Anderson or anyone in press thought, I love you as a friend. My best friend. You meant the world to me, and you never got the chance to hear me say this, so I'm saying it now, just in case you're really hiding somewhere in the graveyard and can hear me. And if you decide to commit the next biggest miracle since Jesus himself rising from the dead, I will punch you. Then probably swear at you.' I paused, wiping away a few tears. 'Yeah, that's about all I've got to say, so, until the next time we meet I guess, which will probably be in heaven.'

I turned to go then spun around again to say a final bit. 'I'll also punch you in heaven for what you put me through.' Then I went, drying my tears as I headed back to Greg's car.

Our next stop was Bart's. I have no idea why agreed to the go on the anniversary-of-Sherlock's-death trip, it was providing a more traumatic experience than Afghanistan ever was. We walked towards the bench near the place where Sherlock had landed. As we got nearer, we saw that a small crowd had gathered. Flowers had been laid on the bench, and the people there were all wearing the same t-shirt with some sort of slogan on it. On the wall above the bench were posters; poster of Sherlock. Posters of Moriarty. Those also had a slogan across them, but it was too small to read from here.

'Excuse me, why are you all here?' I asked a member of the crowd.

Two girls with brown hair, one about 17, the other about 15 turned around. 'We're here for…' They both looked absolutely wonderstruck when they saw me. 'Are you, Dr. John Watson?' I nodded slowly. 'We're here for your best friend. It's a year today he… you know.'

The younger one then spoke. 'Are you okay?' I did a half nod, half shake with my head. 'Do you want an "I believe in Sherlock Holmes" t-shirt?' I smiled at the young girl and nodded. She took me by the arm and dragged me softly through the crowd into the centre. 'Clive, do you have a medium?'

A young boy of about the same age as the girl turned around to face me. He had longish light brown hair that kind of flicked up over his ears and across his forehead. 'Who's it for, Jess?' His chocolate eyes stared at Jess intently.

'This man, ummm, wants to be part of the campaign.'

'Errrr…' He rummaged through the box that was sat on the floor next to him. 'I've not got one in here. There'll be one in my Dad's van. Won't be a minute.' He got up and ran around to the hospital car park.

'That's Clive, Kitty's little brother.' The girl, Jess, was staring in the direction Clive had gone.

'Is Kitty that other girl?' Jess nodded as Kitty came through the crowd to join us. 'You should ask Clive out.'

'What? Are you joking? I don't like him in that way.'

'No, of course you don't, Jess. In general, if you like someone, you don't watch them as they run off, your knees don't feel weak and your voice doesn't melt when you speak to them.'

'How could you tell all of that? And my name's actually Jessamine.'

'I lived with the world's only consulting detective for 18 months of my life. You start to pick up on a few things. It's practically the same thing.'

As I said that sentence, the people in the crowd began to look at me. Some of them gasped, probably recognising me from a photo in a newspaper. Others started whispering to each other. 'I probably shouldn't have said that, should I?' Kitty and Jess shook their heads.

'Here you go, Jessamine.'

'Thanks, Clive.' Their hands touched as he handed her the t-shirt and they stared at each other. I leaned over to Clive and whispered in his ear, 'Ask her out already!'

'Are you joking? She's my sister's best friend!'

'I'm sure Kitty won't mind too much.' I took the t-shirt off them, gave my jacket to Molly and put it on over my shirt. I nodded slightly at Clive.

'Errmmm… Jess will you… err… oh forget this.' He grabbed her by the hand and kissed her. Everyone clapped and cheered. We joined in, nearly crying again. I'd never think I'd see the day that two people fell in love because they believed in Sherlock Holmes.

We walked over to the bench and laid down another bouquet of flowers; red roses this time. I looked up at the wall, reading all of the posters that had been put up. I believe in Sherlock Holmes. I fight John Watson's war. Richard Brook was a fraud. Moriarty was real. The Devil wears Westwood. He jumped off a 60ft and 8inche high building to save his only three friends in the world: would you? We know the truth. Sherlock was not a lie. I am a Watson Warrior.

Woah. People cared so much about him. Molly held me as I cried again. 'Please tell them all thank you.' She nodded and handed me to Greg and Mrs Hudson, telling them to take me into the hospital canteen for lunch.

'Are you okay, John?'

'Yeah, I'll be fine. It's just, I've never done anything like that for Sherlock since he died. Those people probably won't have even met Sherlock, yet they're doing all of this for him. And those two people, Jessamine and Clive, they only became better friends because of Sherlock. I know Sherlock helps people, but help them to fall in love, it's just not right.'

Molly smiled a little. 'I know what you mean. It's so unlike him. I'm sorry.'

'What for?' I asked her as Greg brought over sandwiches and cups of coffee.

'I should have told you about the "I believe in Sherlock Holmes" campaign ages ago.'

'When did it start?'

'About a month after he died. First it started off as few sticky notes on the bench. Then the posters came. After that, there was no stopping them. They all have blogs, websites, pages on facebook, all of them for Sherlock. I was called into my boss' office, because everywhere thought it was me who had started it off. To be honest, I wish I had…' We ate the rest of our lunch in silence.

The afternoon took us all around London, to Sherlock's favourite places, or his favourite crime scenes. We went to the Tapas Brindisa restaurant, Roland Kerr college, Tower 42, the Lucky Cat Emporium, the National Antiquities Museum, the swimming pool, St. Aldate's Boarding School, Trafalgar Square, there were too many to name. We went everywhere me and Sherlock had been.

Greg drove us all to Baker Street: our last stop. 'Come in for cup of tea everyone. I think we'll probably need one after the day we've had.' We all nodded and went into 221 and all sat down in Mrs Hudson's kitchen. She handed out the biscuits as she was waiting for the kettle to boil. Somebody say something. The silence was so awkward. Thankfully, Greg started talking about how stupid Anderson had been on their previous case.

'…seriously, the guy has no idea!'

All of a sudden, banging noises were heard upstairs. 'Oh, John. Go and tell that flat mate of yours to stop making so much noise.'

'Of course I will, Mrs Hudson. Him listening, is a different story.'

I walked towards the stairs, hanging my jacket up as I went. I bounded up the stairs, pushing open the door to our flat. 'Sherlock, we're trying to have a quiet cup of tea downstairs, which is proving impossible with you banging around up here.'

'Sorry John, there was just something I had to sort out up here.' Sherlock leapt up from the settee. 'It's far too tidy. Has Mrs Hudson been up here?'

'She hasn't since you die…' I looked across at Sherlock. And there he was. Large as life. Not buried in the ground. He was stood in 221B Baker Street. 'You were dead.' I felt my voice break and tears stream down my face.

'John, please understand, I had to do it. If I didn't, Moriarty would have killed you.'

'He may as well have killed me! I am nothing without you, Sherlock!' I punched him in the face, cutting all of the fingers on my right hand.

'I guess Irene was right. You really can cut yourself .' He smiled slightly, beginning to cry too. He tried to reach out for me, but I stepped back from him, disgusted at what he had done. 'I had to wait a year at least. I'm so sorry, John. I couldn't let you know. The only people who knew were Mycroft and Molly.'

'Molly knew!' Why would he tell Molly? I was his best friend, yet he told the quiet girl from the morgue who he had no interest in what so ever.

'Of course Molly knew. She had to fake the report on my death.'

'That's no excuse, Sherlock! I was- hold on. You did it to save me?'

He nodded earnestly. I looked at him properly now. He was wearing his favourite suit, the one with the white shirt. His hair was in its' perfect black curls that I remember so well. I took a quick look around the flat. His coat and scarf were hanging over the arm of my chair, and his violin was in his. Most of his belongings were in boxes that Mrs Hudson and I had packed up many months before. I'm glad that I had refused to give them away to a charity shop or throw them away. He had taken some things out of the boxes already, like the skull and union jack cushion, but most things were still in storage.

I slowly walked forwards, with my hand out. 'Are you real?'

'Of course I'm real, John.'

I could feel his breath on me now that we were stood so close. 'You have no idea what you've put me through.'

'But I'm back now. And I know that your wounds will take a lot of time to heal, longer than the ones that you acquired in Afghanistan, but I'll help you through it.'

'You better help me through it.' We both smiled little, despite the tears streaming down our faces.

'I heard what you said in the cemetery. I never got the chance to tell you it either, but you also mean the world to me. I love you too.' I swallowed hard as he stuck out his hand for me to shake. I shook my head and grinned. Then I hugged him so hard, I thought his lean frame would break. He hugged me back, feeling his tears land in my hair.

'John! John! What are you doing up here? You've been ages.' Greg came up the stairs, followed by Molly and Mrs Hudson.

I gave all three of them the biggest smile I could muster. 'Sherlock… you're dead… He is dead right?'

'Nope.' Molly smile back at the pair of us.

'How did you know?'

'Because I faked the report on his death, Greg.' I never thought could do anything like that. She was always so quiet, yet she just helped someone faked their death. But then again, she has a huge crush on Sherlock, so not a difficult leap. Oh gosh, I sound like Sherlock!

'Mrs Hudson?' She looked between all four of us, getting paler every time her gaze passed over Sherlock.

'Err… Mrs Hudson?' She looked up as Sherlock spoke to her, shook her head, and then fainted. 'John, Molly, see to her.' We carried her to the settee, checking she was in a comfortable position.

'She's okay. Well, other than the fact you just possibly gave her the biggest fright of her life, Sherlock!'

He shrugged and smiled. 'You said she'd be fine, so that's okay then.' I shook my head.

'Will you get a glass of water for when she wakes up Greg?' He nodded and went into the kitchen in an attempt to find a glass.

'You said three years Sherlock! It's only been a year! What if Moriarty's network are out there still trying to find you?'

'Molly, calm down. I can handle Moriarty's network. But I couldn't leave John any longer than I did. It was breaking me, and evidentially him. It was breaking you, and you knew I was still alive!' The doorbell began to ring. 'Leave it.'

'But it might be important!'

'I highly doubt it. Who would be coming to see Mrs Hudson?'

'What I don't understand,' Greg commented as he handed me the glass of water 'is how you did it?'

Comments were flying across the room from all three of us, whilst Sherlock looked confused, probably for the first time in his life, and the doorbell continued to ring.

'Shut up!' The door downstairs opened and we could hear three people advancing at a casual pace up the stairs. Moriarty's people? No, I doubt that they would walk slowly if they were coming to kill us all. The door to the flat opened slowly, to reveal two men dressed in black suits carrying two suitcases each, both out of breath. 'And you are?' The men looked up at Sherlock, so out of breath that they couldn't reply.

Another figure came up the stairs. It was a young girl, with long dark brown curly hair. She was wearing a pink hoodie, skinny jeans and trainers. She smiled at Sherlock. 'Hello, Uncle.'


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2-

'Hello Uncle.'

'Uncle?' We all shouted. Since when did Sherlock have any relatives other than Mycroft and their mother?

'Well, a hello back would have been nice, but then again, it has been a while. Almost a decade in fact. You probably don't even recognise me.' The girl, who was obviously Sherlock's niece, sounded sweet in a strange way. She must have been about fourteen, but didn't sound very grown up, sounded more like she was in year 7 or 8, not in year 10. She looked like a fairly normal teenager though, but then again, I didn't really know what most of the teenage population of London were wearing these days, but I think hoodies were definitely part of the dress code.

'Lily, what the hell are you doing here?' So he did recognise her, but I doubt Sherlock would forget a face so easily. He hissed at Lily, but I found it hard to work out whether it was anger, confusion or both.

'Dad sent me to live with you, said he sent you an email about a few weeks ago. He didn't get a reply, so he took that as a yes to my living with you.'

'For how long?'

'I don't know, ask him, all I heard him say before he stopped listening to him was something about having an education instead of helping you out with cases, which is so unfair!' Lily stamped her foot and folded her arms.

'Right, well, when Mycroft's servants have recovered, they can take you bags upstairs; you'll have to have the room next to John's. I'll talk it through with Mrs Hudson after, I'm sure you won't mind as long as you like to drink tea.'

'It's okay. What happened to Mrs Hudson?'

'She fainted with the shock of seeing me again.'

'Hold on,' I asked, 'How did you know that is Mrs Hudson?'

'Well, first of all, most land lady's tend to be elderly women who have a big house with no one in it other than themselves as their children have moved out and their husband has died or they have got divorced, and Molly here is nowhere near old enough to fit that description.' Molly stepped back in surprise. 'Plus, I saw all your pictures when I hacked Dad's computer the other week. Keep up John.'

'She seems a little nicer than you Sherlock.' Greg stepped towards Lily. 'I'm Det-

'Detective Inspector Gregory Lestrade of Scotland Yard, your Sergeant is Sally Donovan who is currently having an affair with one of the people in Forensics, namely Anderson. Also, your wife is having an affair with your son's old P.E teacher, yet you still won't believe my Uncle, no matter how many times he tells you about it. I honestly think it's time for you to get a divorce as the you think Molly can look quite fit at times, and the woman who works at the front desk in Scotland Yard has been trying to ask you out for half a year now, and you don't think she's that bad looking either.' Lily smiled at Greg and Sherlock leaned back onto the table, a corner of his mouth slightly raised. 'Now, as much as you would like to file that report on how Sherlock faked his death, he has an unconscious land lady and a very excitable niece to deal with. He would much appreciate it if you left and came back tomorrow morning when he managed to tidy things up a little in his mind palace.'

Greg turned to Sherlock speechless. Sherlock nodded at him and Greg just turned and left the flat. 'Lily, take your bags upstairs and unpack a little. We'll catch up over tea.' She smiled and took one of the smaller suitcases upstairs, with the two men following her.

'Right. Start talking now. Since when did you have a niece?'

'Since about 15 years ago when Mycroft's now dead wife gave birth to her, funnily enough.'

'How?'

'Well, I hope that with you being a doctor John that I wouldn't need to explain how one makes a baby.'

'I meant, Mycroft is like you. He has the I'm-a-robot-I'll-never-fall-in-love-trait. How did he even get married, let alone have a child?'

'Ask him yourself the next time you see him. You and him seem to have quite nice chats with each other.'

'Yeah, in dodgy warehouses.' I looked up at Sherlock and we both smiled. Just like before.

'Ermm.. Sherlock. Mrs Hudson is waking up.' Sherlock and Molly sat on the floor next to the sofa, watching Mrs Hudson slowly wake up from her state of unconsciousness.

'Mrs Hudson?' Sherlock rose to sit next to her on the settee. 'Are you okay?' Mrs Hudson turned to face Sherlock and slapped him. 'I'm sorry.'

'So you should be, Sherlock Holmes. So you should be…' Mrs Hudson's eyes went a little and she held onto Sherlock's arm.

'Molly, take Mrs Hudson downstairs for a cup of tea.' She nodded and took Mrs Hudson downstairs, gently soothing her with her soft voice.

'I saw you, you know.'

'Sorry?'

'When Lily deduced Lestrade. You smiled.'

Sherlock shrugged. 'I didn't think she could do it. The last time I met her she couldn't.'

'How old was she then?'

'Seven.'

'Seven? You're actually expecting a seven year old to deduce like you?'

'I started when I was five. Besides, I didn't expect her to be like me. I know it may be hard to believe, but I wasn't always this good.' I laughed.

'So, what is for tea? You've promised Lily some, and I think it should be you who makes it, due to the fact you decided to give us all the biggest shock of our lives today.'

'I'll order pizza. Do you still like pepperoni?'

'I guess. I haven't had it since you "died". The smell upset me.' Sherlock gave me a weak half smile. 'It'll take a while before everything is absolutely okay again, you know.'

He nodded. 'I know. I'll go and order the pizza.'

'What about Lily?'

'She likes pepperoni too. Keep up John.'

'Like your room?'

'Yes, thank you, John. But you better not snore loud, the walls are very thin.' I laughed slightly.

'I don't snore loudly, so you'll be safe.' I walked further into the room and opened one of her suitcases for her. 'If you don't mind me saying, Lily, you don't sound like a normal teenage girl.'

'What do I sound like?'

'You sound about twelve years old, but you must be fourteen at least. Why is that?'

Lily turned to face me. 'My Dad never let me outside, unless it was in the garden. The only people I ever spoke to were him, the servants, and Sherlock, the several times he visited. I don't know what a normal teenage girl would sound like.'

'So, you've never been to school?'

Lily shook her head. 'Dad brought in tutors for me, so I wouldn't have to go outside.'

'Are you allergic to trees or something?'

'No, he said it was so I wouldn't have to face the harsh realities of life, I'd always be safe. But I didn't want to stay locked up in the house all of the time. I wanted to meet other people. Like you and Molly and Greg and Mrs Hudson and everyone else.'

'How did you know about us?'

'The internet. You had blog, as did Molly. Sherlock had a website, and most newspapers publish their articles on the internet. Dad never brought any newspapers home, and the servants were forbidden to talk to me about Sherlock. So I nagged Dad until he was so fed up off me he emailed Sherlock asking him if I could stay at Baker Street for a while, as I like my Uncle much more than I like my Dad.'

'I think anyone would prefer Sherlock over Mycroft.' We both smiled.

'Pizza's arrived!'


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3-

'How come you didn't reply to my Dad's email, Uncle?'

'Well, I'm sorry Lily, but I was dead when he sent it me; I thought at least that much was obvious to you.'

'Yeah, yet you still had the time to stalk John.'

I rose my head from my pizza to look at Sherlock. 'You were stalking me?'

'I'll go and get my laptop to read the email…' Sherlock left the kitchen and went into his bedroom.

'Was he seriously stalking me?'

'Mmm.' Lily nodded, her mouth full of pizza.

'How do you know?'

'He came round to my Dad's house about 3 months ago to talk.'

My mind quickly flashed back to one of the first things that she had said. 'But you said you hadn't seen each other for a decade.'

'Oh, we haven't. I was locked in my room, as usual, but the living room is through the next door, so I could hear everything that they were saying.'

'That's a little strange, to have a door leading off to a bedroom in a living room.'

'You haven't seen what the door looks like. It's a bookcase, so you can't tell it's there unless you know it's there. And it can't lock from the inside, only from the outside. There are also no windows in my room, just paintings of trees and grass and flowers, with curtains hanging at the side.'

'How do you get oxygen into your room then?'

'There are several vents, but they're far too small for me to crawl through to get out of the house. The only time that I'm allowed outside is on hot summer days, but even then I'm only allowed to walk in the shaded parts of the house with my maid and with a security squad of 4 men.'

'Why has Mycroft put you under house arrest?'

'Ask him, or maybe Sherlock might know, but then again, I don't think my Uncle cares that much for my Dad is thinking.'

'I'm sure that's not tru-'

'Oh, I'm sure it is true. When he came three months ago, Uncle Sherlock pretended not to hear my screams for help, or me crying to be free.' Lily stood up from her chair and stormed off to the bathroom, clearly upset about our conversation.

'Sherlock!' I marched into his bedroom, to find him sat on his bed, quizzically studying his laptop screen.

'This email from Mycroft is stupid. He doesn't need to tell me how to look after a child, I know perfectly well how to look after a child, and I've got loads of people to help me anyway.'

'Sherlock, you can barely look after yourself at times, let alone look after a fourteen year old girl. I think Mycroft did the right thing this time.'

'Meaning?' Sherlock glanced briefly up at me from his laptop screen.

'Mycroft is a bad father.' I sat down on the his bed next to him. 'When you went around to Mycroft's house 3 months ago, Lily cried out for help from you. You spoke to Mycroft and left her screaming out your name.'

'John, Mycroft has treated Lily like that since the day her mother died. Nothing I say or do would make him change his mind about the way he treats her. Besides, I was still dead: I wouldn't have been able to take care of her, it's not like I could have brought her back here.' He paused as I nodded slightly. 'Listen, Mycroft wants Lily in some sort of education, but I can't teach her, I'll have cases and people constantly annoying me with how I faked my death.'

'So send her to school. She seems lonely, I think the company will do her good.'

'I don't think school is a brilliant idea. The only social contact Lily's had outside of Mycroft's house is about half an hour ago with me, you, Molly, Lestrade and Mrs Hudson. How on earth will she cope in a building full of teenagers?'

'Sherlock, I don't know Lily as well as you do, but she's not a complete socio-path like you. She wants to meet new people and make friends. From what she's been telling me, the only human contact she's had is with her maid and some security guards. Tomorrow, all three of us are going to the nearest high school or academy or whatever and enrolling her. After, we'll go and get her some school uniform. Okay?' Sherlock nodded, not arguing as he was afraid of losing me. 'What else does Mycroft say in his email?'

'To make sure she eats and showers and sleeps, and to try and dissuade her from wanting to go on cases with me.'

'She doesn't eat, shower and sleep?'

He shrugged and smiled. 'What can I say? Like Uncle, like niece.'

'The saying doesn't go like that…'

'Anyway, shall we go and pick up your stuff from your new flat?'

'Why?'

'Well, you're not going to carry on living in that atrocious flat; if you can call it a flat. You belong here, at Baker Street. And I'll need help with looking after Lily.' Come back to Baker Street? I bit my lip. Could I really come back to Baker Street with everything that's happened? 'Please John? I'll even help you pack up your stuff, and we can show Lily around some of London on the way there and back.'

I sighed. 'Go on then.'

The next morning, we went to Jonah Duckworth Academy to enrol Lily there. Lily kicked up a right fuss earlier in the morning. She didn't want to go to a school, she wanted to solve cases and run around London after mad men. I was trying to explain to her about what else we do, and how dangerous it is, but Lily was having none of it. We had managed to calm her down when Molly arrived.

'Not being rude Sherlock, but why is Molly here?'

'You said we had to go and get a uniform after, and I'm no good at clothes shopping, so Molly can handle that.'

'Oh right. Are you ready Lily?'

'Yeah, ready to go talk to a handful idiotic governors of some academy that will have brains the size of fish. Let's go right now, I can barely contain my excitement.'

'You sounded more like a teenager then.'

'So you'd rather me sound like my Uncle who is a pain in your neck than a sweet 8 year old?'

'Let's try for somewhere in the middle then.' This is going to be more hard work than I expected.

It was nearly the end of the first period when we got to the Academy, and no one was in a rush to show us to where the enrolment meeting was to take place, so we were seated in the main entrance. The bell went, and teenagers flooded out beyond the glass doors. Lily looked towards them eagerly, but when Sherlock saw the amount of people out there, he clearly wasn't happy.

'Sherlock, there are more people in the entire of London than there are on that corridor.'

'The entire population isn't nearly squeezed into one corridor, is it?'

Before I could retort back, a secretary lead us to an office halfway along the busy corridor and we were seated in several chairs in front of a very tidy desk. Everything was immaculate, with pens lined up perfectly and a chair sat exactly in front of the computer screen.

'Sorry to have kept you waiting. We'll begin with the enrolment now.' A woman in her 30's sat behind the desk and began to pull out some forms from a drawer in her desk. 'The Governors are upstairs sorting out a science experiment that was set awry by a year 9 pupil, so it'll just be me for the enrolment meeting. I'm Miss Riley, the head mistress. Now we just have to fill out some forms to enrol Lily into the school and she can start tomorrow. Now, Lily, what's your middle name?'

'Anne Louise Elizabeth Grace.'

The head mistress paused and looked from her form to Lily. 'Which one's your favourite?'

'Grace.'

'I'll put that then, and your last name is Holmes, yes?' Lily nodded and the head mistress asked her more questions like her previous school and her current address. 'Birthday?'

'10th of September, 1998.'

'First family contact?'

'That would be me, her Uncle.' Sherlock spoke up, his eyes darting around the room looking at every last detail.

'Okay, full name?'

'Sherlock Holmes.'

'Sherlock Holmes?' Miss Riley looked up from her form. 'You died last year, didn't you?'

'Correct. You listen to the news.'

'How do you know I didn't hear about it from a friend or read it in a newspaper?'

'You have chronic OCD so don't read newspapers as you are afraid you will get ink poisoning and you don't have any friends as you are to focussed on your job and they cannot deal with your disorder. Your family are the same and you very seldom see them, only usually at Christmas, and I highly doubt that my death was high on your conversation list over Christmas dinner. The details you need are all on this business card, as are John's, who would be the second family contact, even though he is not actually related to either of us. However, there is a high chance that we would be together and not answering our phones, so I will give you a third and fourth family contact. Molly, please give Miss Riley your details and I shall give her Lestrade's.'

'You're Molly Hooper? The Pathologist? And Lestrade? As in Detective Inspector Lestrade? Wow, I was beginning to think you were all book characters or something from the way the newspapers were going on about it.'

'Well, now you know that we are real and not fake. Lestrade works at New Scotland Yard…'


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4-

'Now, you know what you're doing today, Lily, yes?'

'Yes, Uncle. Please stop messing with my tie. Molly sorted it.'

'I just want to make sure you look your best for your first day of school.' I was stood in the entrance to the living room, wanting to go and pick my school bag up from the settee, but my Uncle had knelt down in front of me and was checking my uniform.

'I look fine. Molly taught me how to wear it in the shop so I look like someone who has been to school before, not like a nerdy kid on their first day in year 7.' Molly isn't the most stylish of people, but school uniform was more about how you wear it than what you wear, but everyone would be wearing the same thing, so it was hardly unlikely that you could be stylish in school. She just told me to wear my skirt just above the knee, have my top button undone and my tie about half of its proper length with my shirt un-tucked.

'They usually prefer for your hair to be up, not down, Lily.'

'From what I saw yesterday, no one really cares how you wear your hair.'

Sherlock leaned back a little from me, his eyes gliding over me one more time to make sure he had checked everything before he got up and went back to the table by the windows to carry on reading the newspaper and drinking his tea. I walked over to the settee and was just about to grab my bag when John stopped me.

'Do you have lunch?'

'I have a bottle of water and a packet of crisps in my bag.'

'That is not a proper lunch. You haven't even had breakfast yet. How are you going to concentrate without any food?'

'Well I've always managed to before. If it makes you happy, I'll take an apple. Now please can I go?'

'No.'

'Why?'

'Because we are taking you in a taxi to school. You have no idea how to use the buses or the Underground yet, but you will eventually take to Underground to and from school everyday. I will teach you how to use the Underground, but for the first few days, you will go by taxi, but today, myself and John will accompany you there. So sit down and eat an apple whilst we finish our breakfast.'

'Correction, while John finishes his breakfast and whilst you finish your cup of tea. You haven't eaten anything either.'

'Why on earth did I choose to live with one Sherlock, let alone two?'

'Now, Lily. Here is your timetable, your welcome pack, your map, your homework diary, jotter and locker key. We don't chew gum at this school or swear. We usually prefer for you to have your hair up, but-'

'That's not going to happen, half the other girls don't so it wouldn't be fair to make me. And I wasn't going to anyway, no matter what you said.'

'Do you and your Uncle display similar traits?'

'Deductive trait, yes. Annoying trait, no, not that I think so. That was what you were implying.'

'Oh no, I wasn't. It was ermm… actually it was the deductive trait that I was referring to.' We were stood on the busy corridor I could see yesterday from my seat in the main entrance, and being pushed and shoved everywhere was something different to what I was used to. 'Now you have maths first with Mr Driver in room 52, which is quite a way around here. Follow me.' I began to follow Miss Riley down the corridor before she started shouting at some pupils. 'Excuse me! Stop that!' She turned around to face me. 'I need to go and sort out this situation. Wait here a minute, I won't be long.' Miss Riley marched off down the corridor, shouting as she went.

I wasn't going to wait for her. I had a map, so it wasn't like I couldn't get there. I started pushing my way through the crowd until some girl shoved me and I tripped over a boy's foot, knocking us both to the floor.

'Hey! Watch – Oh. I'm sorry. I'll help.' A boy of my age who had fallen on the floor with me had turned around to help me pick up all of the things that Miss Riley had given me. I looked up at the boy to see he was my own age. His hair was dark and styled off to the side, looking black against his immensely pale skin.

'It's o…kay, reall…y.' Why was I stumbling over my words? The boy held my things and reached out for my hand to help me up.

'Yeah, of course it is. You look really shaken. Chill, we don't bite.' I smiled a little but couldn't look up at him. 'Hey,' He put his hand under my chin and lifted my head up so I looked at him. 'I've not seen you around here before. Are you new? What year are you in?'

'Yes, year 9.'

'Oh, so am I.'

'I know.' He let go of my chin and tilted his head to one side. 'You have a sulphuric acid stain on your blazer. When I came to get enrolled yesterday, Miss Riley said a year 9 had set a science experiment awry. Sulphuric acid tends to do that to items of clothing.' The boy nodded slowly. I could pretty much hear the cogs turning in his mind, debating whether he should stay with this weirdo.

'I'm Jack.' So he's decided to stay.

'Lily.'

'What lesson do you have?'

'Maths with Mr Driver.'

'Oh, so have I. I'll take you there, come on.' We carried one walking the way Miss Riley was going until I realised something.

'If we have the same lesson, why were you heading in the other direction before?'

'Oh, I ermmm… was going to the toilet.' Then a few people screamed from further down the corridor and Jack smirked a little.

'No you weren't. You were setting up whatever trap those people just walked into.'

'You're good at this. Yeah, Miss Riley saw me up to no good, so I quickly spread some olive oil on the floor and hid behind a group of year 7's and back tracked this way, and eventually fell on the floor.'

'So in a way, your own trap back fired on yourself.'

'Yeah, thanks for pointing that out, Lily.' The corridor had cleared and I could see a big patch of olive oil on the corridor floor.

'That is absolutely disgusting. Why did you feel the need to do it? And how were you going to get to maths?'

'Well, I don't like school, and I wasn't really planning on going to maths today. You're the reason I'm going.' We had reached the big patch of olive oil, and it was shining so much in the sunlight from the windows, you'd have to be a complete idiot to miss it.

'There is no way I am walking through that.'

'I guess we'll have to skip maths then…' I turned to face Jack and raised my eyebrow at him. 'Give me your hand.' Jack shimmied his way along the wall away from the olive oil in the short space he hadn't spread it on, pulling me along after him.

'It would have been a lot easier if you'd just carried me over it.'

'But then I would have had to step in it.'

'Why do you care? You put it down there in the first place.'

'I can already tell that there's no point in arguing with you. Let's just get to maths.' We carried on down the corridor and Jack opened the door to room 52 to find that the lesson was already in progression, but we entered anyway.

'Ah, Mr Howell. How nice for you to join us 10 minutes later than everyone else. And I see you've brought the new student with you. Nice to meet you Miss Lily Holmes.' Mr Driver stuck out his hand and I shook it, beginning to realise that Jack had some sort of reputation around the academy.

'You too, Mr Driver.

'I suppose Miss Riley has already had a word with you about your hair.'

'Yes, and she failed quite miserably, so don't bother.'

'And I see you've already picked up the annoying and talk-back-to-everyone-you-meet trait from Jack here.'

'Actually, I apparently get that from my Uncle. Jack isn't half as bad.' Jack laughed beside me and went to sit down at the front and took a pencil case out of his bag.

'Well, parent's evening is in a couple of months, tell him to come along, so I can meet him. A question for you now, Jack. Miss Riley rung around to say I was to send you to her if I found out that you had spread the olive oil on the floor further down the corridor, but since you have a new friend, let's ask her. Did Jack spread olive oil on the corridor, Lily?'

'No. Why would he do that? He was with me for ages showing me around the school. And besides, he helped me to get around the olive oil.'

Mr Driver handed me an exercise book and looked at me with his eyes narrowed. 'Really? I guess we'll have to keep looking for the culprit then. And for your previous comments, you have earned a place at the front, next to the school's prize prat, Jack Howell. I'm sure you won't mind though: you're practically best friends. Now, back to balancing equations…'

'Lily, can you just stay behind for a minute? I'd just like a quick word with you.'

'Well, with your attitude with me before, I don't believe I should.'

'I have an excellent point to make.' I glanced towards the door, but stayed stood next to my desk and decided to give Mr Driver the benefit of the doubt and hear what he had to say. 'It's about Jack.'

'What about him?'

'He's not that kind of person you want to be hanging around with. More detentions than anyone in this academy had ever had. He's been accused of drug dealing, selling cigarettes, selling alcohol, bullying and countless other things. Find some nice friends, just don't consort with Jack.'

'To be brutally honest Mr Driver, I think I'm a better judge of character than you. After all, he's only been accused of those things.' I picked up my bag from the floor, slung it on my shoulder and left the room, to find Jack lent against the wall waiting for me. 'Hi, Jack.'

'What did Mr Driver want?'

'Just a quick word about my attitude.' Like I was going to tell Jack that my maths teacher had warned me to stay away from him. 'I have art with Miss McCann now.'

'Yeah, so do I. It's this way.' We began walking down the corridor before Jack spoke again. 'Listen, you didn't have to lie for me. You could have said I was the one who had spread the olive oil on the corridor. But, thank you anyway.'

'It's okay. But don't count on me doing it all the time. From the way Mr Driver was calling you the school's prize prat, I believe you have a reputation to up hold.'

'You are actually brilliant at this. How do you do it?'

'You just kind of pick it up as you go along.' Jack nodded slowly again when a young girl and a boy ran past us on the corridor, shortly followed by a half running-half walking Miss Riley. 'What's all that about?'

'That was Kitty and Clive Burke. They keep on putting up cryptic notices around school, especially on the school notice board. It's up on that wall.'

We began to walk towards the notice board instead of the stairs. 'What kind on messages?'

'Believe in Sherlock or something. I don't know, I've never taken that much notice before. I just walk past them and they sometimes catch my eye. Maybe you can work out what they mean.' We had reached the notice board, and my eyes began to flicker over a few of the posters and stickers on there.

'Believe in Sherlock, Moriarty was real, I fight John Watson's war…' One of the posters had a picture of my Uncle on John on it, I stepped back slightly. I remembered reading about this in Molly's case file before I left my Dad's house, but I had no idea it wasn't just at Bart's hospital. 'I know what they mean.'

'Really? Kitty and Clive won't tell anyone, they just join in conversations with people who already know. Tell all.'

'Sherlock's my uncle, and John's his flat mate.'

'Right, Lily. Okay then. Who's Moriarty then?'

'Their arch-enemy of course.'

'Do you honestly expect me to believe all of this?' I nodded.

'Look, Google him in I.T, we have it fourth lesson. Find his website and read what his special talent is. You've already seen me do it. But my Uncle is so much better than me at it. Come back to my Uncle's flat after school and watch him do it to prove to you that he's not a fraud.' Jack looked at me with narrowed eyes like the way Mr Driver did.

'Okay.'

'You'll have to teach me how to use the underground though.'

'Who says I get to school on the underground?'

'I saw your ticket in your bag before.'

'How can I ever keep secrets from you?'


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5-

'I'm sure I've seen this flat in the paper.'

'You probably would have. It was just a year ago when my Uncle faked his death.'

'Um, okay. Anyway, there's a party tonight, and if it's okay with your Uncle, you should probably go so you can meet more people from school.'

'He'll be fine with it. Hopefully. What time does it start?'

'In about half an hour, but you can arrive whenever.'

'Are you going?'

'Yeah, I'll probably get changed there though. I brought extra clothes.'

'You can get changed in our bathroom if you want. Come on.' I opened the door to 221, not surprised that it wasn't locked.

'Why is the door not locked?'

'John probably forgot; he's just getting back in the swing of things. And it's not like anyone would go in here. Most people know who lives here. The last person to break in ended up being chucked out the window by my Uncle.' For about the tenth time today, Jack nodded slowly. 'It's really annoying when you keep on doing that.' We climbed up the stairs and entered 221B to find John typing up his blog and Sherlock playing the violin. John turned when we entered.

'Oh, god! We were supposed to pick you up weren't we? I completely forgot, Lily. I'm so sorry.'

'I think Sherlock's the one who's meant to remember, not you. It's fine, Jack showed me how to use the Underground.' That's when Uncle stopped playing the violin and turned to face me and Jack.

'Really? Nice to meet you, Jack.' My Uncle did the most surprising thing ever and put down his violin bow and stuck out his hand for Jack to shake. Instead of nodding slowly like he had done all day, Jack shook Sherlock's hand and smiled.

'Nice to meet you too, Mr Holmes.'

'Please, call me Sherlock. Now, yes, Jack can get changed in bathroom, and depending on where it is, yes, you can also go to this party Lily.'

'It's on Gower Street.'

'Thank you Jack. As long as you're back by midnight, you can go Lily.'

'Sherlock! Ten o'clock Lily.'

'Eleven o'clock'

'Half Ten.'

'Hmm… Deal. Now, both of you go and get changed. Actually, Jack get changed then go up to Lily's room and tell her what the most suitable thing to wear to a party is.'

'Err… okay. Where is the bathroom?'

'It's this way.' I lead Jack upstairs into the bathroom next to my bedroom. 'I'll be- woah!' Jack pulled me into the bathroom and gently threw me against the wall before locking the door. 'Yes?'

Jack leaned in close to me and put his hand above my head on the wall. I felt my heart beat quickening, my pupils dilating, my cheeks growing hotter. Why? I didn't understand. I'd never felt like this before. Stop doing this, body! 'I'm sorry.'

'For what?'

'For doubting your Uncle and John.'

'It's okay.'

'No it's not. I know I'm not as good at deducing as you or your Uncle, but I could tell you were insulted when I started joking about them being real or being able to deduce things. So I'm sorry. And don't tell people I said that to you, like you said earlier today, I have a reputation at the academy to uphold. Are we friends again?' We both smiled.

'I believe we never actually fell out. Is that everything you wanted?' He nodded. 'As I was saying before you threw me against the wall, I'll be in my bedroom next door when you're done.' Jack let go of the wall and unlocked the door to let me out, locking it again after I had left. I didn't understand why he had felt the need to lock me in the bathroom to tell me that; maybe Jack thought Sherlock wouldn't be able to tell that Jack had doubted him, but he probably already knew.

'It's not very decorative, is it?' A few minutes later, Jack was leant against the door frame and was looking inside my bedroom, inspecting how white the walls were.

'I'm not bothered, and I've only just moved in. My wardrobe's in the corner.' I turned to look at Jack as he opened wardrobe and began rifling through it. He was wearing skinny black jeans, trainers and a tight white t-shirt. I felt my heart beat speeding up again. This is ridiculous: what on earth is wrong with me? 'Do you have any dresses?'

'They're at the right side.' Jack pulled out my only 2 dresses: one was black and finished at the knee with one strap which I never got the point of. Shouldn't a dress have 2 straps? The other one was white with a generous amount of lace on it. 'Why does the black one only have one strap?'

'That's just the style. Which one do you want to wear?'

'The black one.'

'The white one's nicer.'

'I want to wear the black one.' Jack rolled his eyes and handed it me. 'What shoes should I wear with it?'

'Ermm…' He turned to look at my shoes, still in the suitcase that John had opened for me. 'Those sparkly black pumps. Shall I go downstairs and sit in the living room?'

'Yeah, I'll be down in a few minutes.'

'You look nice, Lily.'

'Thanks, John.' I came down a few minutes later, wearing the black dress and pumps, along with my mum's pink bracelet that I never took off and a silver necklace. 'What's Sherlock said to Jack?'

'I have not said anything to him.'

'He asked Jack how his mother was coping with being off the bottle.'

'Thanks, Uncle.' I turned to face Jack who was sat on the settee staring at me. 'Are you ready to go?'

'Err yeah. Are you not taking a bag?'

'No. I don't have a phone and I won't need money to get to the party: Gower Street is only around the corner.'

'You don't have a phone?'

'You don't tend to need a mobile when you live in one room…'

'What?' My comment had caused Jack to stand up and walk over to me.

'I'll tell you on the way here. You can leave your school bag here and you can come and pick it up after. See you later Uncle, John.'

'Have a nice time you two.'

'We may be out when you get back, Lestrade says he'll be coming over to talk about me faking my death, but it'll probably entail us having a trip to Scotland Yard, so just go to bed or something. We'll leave the door unlocked.'

'Alright. Let's go, Jack.'

*  
'... ever since I can remember, I've been locked in my bedroom.'

'That's horrible! Can't you ring child line or something?'

'There's no point. They wouldn't be able to do anything about it: my dad practically runs the government; he's untouchable.'

'Can't Sherlock do something?'

'Right now, he can look after me to the best of his ability.' We had reached the house where the party was, but it looked like it had been going for an hour already. People were already drunk, explaining the toilet paper draped around the front of the house. We stepped up to the door and Jack rung the bell. 'Please don't tell anyone about it.'

'As long as you don't say anything about my mum.'

'Deal.'

A girl answered the door wearing a bright pink dress, which was more a piece of material wrapped around her body that was just covering her private parts. Her heels were black and at least 6 inches, if not more, and her being completely off her head wasn't helping her walk. 'Jack! You came! Who's this?'

'This is Lily. She just started at the academy today. I thought if she came to the party she could get to know people better.'

'Yeah, whatever. Come in. I'm Becky.'

'H-'

'Come on, Jack. I want to show you something.'

'Just go and get drink from the kitchen. I'll find you later. Don't leave without me, John told me to look after you.' Becky grabbed Jack by his t-shirt and dragged him into the living room, leaving me laughing as I went into the kitchen. I suppose someone has to care about me, I didn't think it would be Sherlock, but he seemed like he did care this morning when he was checking my uniform. I don't know, I sometimes wish Sherlock was more of a normal Uncle. But then again… I went into the kitchen to find that no one was in there, probably due to the fact that the music was coming from the living room. I ran the cold water from the sink and grabbed a plastic cup from the side, filling it up.

I gulped down half of it and groaned slightly. 'Hot?'

'A little.' I turned around to see a girl with brown hair in leggings and a long top staring at my hair and eyes strangely. I think she was that Kitty girl that Jack mentioned. 'Are you Kitty Burke?'

'Err yes.'

'Why are you here? You're not in year 9. You're in the 6th form at the academy, and you didn't strike me as the sort of person to be at a party like this.'

'My mum is friends with Becky's mum, and they think that me and Becky are friends, so I got invited to the party. How did you know my name?'

'Jack told me when we saw you and your brother Clive run down the corridor today. He said you help to run the Believe in Sherlock campaign.'

'That's right. Do you know what the campaign is about?'

'Yes, but there's no need for you to carry on with it.'

'Oh? And why is that?'

'Well, he's revealed himself. John, Lestrade and Mrs Hudson know.'

'What about Molly and Mycroft?'

'Molly already knew, as did my Dad.' Kitty opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out. She kept on opening and closing it, like she was a goldfish.

'Hey, Lily.' Jack came into the kitchen with his hair ruffled a little. Crying could be heard over the music in the living room.

'Who's crying?'

'Becky.' Jack got a plastic cup from the side and reached behind me to fill it up with water. 'She tried to kiss me.'

'So you didn't kiss her then?'

'No. She's always liked me, but I've never seen her drunk enough before to ever try and kiss me. I see you met Kitty.' He gulped down the water in the same way I did: the 18th of June was beginning to get quite hot.

'Yeah, she seems to be having some sort of problem with her voice box.'

'Or she's just in shock that she's met Sherlock Holmes' niece.'

'Or both.' I stopped leaning on the kitchen sink and began to walk towards the living room. 'Come on, I want to see how devastated Becky is that you wouldn't let her kiss you.' I heard Jack laugh behind me as he followed me into the living room, where some sort of music explosion was taking place. 'Where's Becky?'

'What?'

'Where. Is. Becky?' I shouted. How on earth people could here themselves think in hear was beyond me. Jack nodded and took my hand, guiding me towards the back of the room, where things were a little quieter. Becky was sat on a chair crying, with two of her friends either side of her telling her everything was all right. 'Becky?' She looked up as I spoke to her, and she immediately stood up and reached out to slap me, but she was so drunk that she missed and slapped the air in between us instead.

'You're a whore, Lily!' I have no idea what a whore was, but as she said it, Jack let go of my hand and looked awkwardly at the floor. So not something nice I'm guessing. 'Why didn't you tell me you and Jack were an item when you got here?'

'He is not my boyfriend. I just came to see…' how devastated you were and laugh? No. '…how you were. Jack said you were crying.' She nodded and fell back into her chair, howling out her feelings once more. 'Why do you have blood on your ankle?'

'I fell over.'

'That's not your blood though. It's on your ankle, not from your ankle. It's on your other ankle too. It's also on your wrists. And in your hair. Why?' I thought I freaked people out at times, but having blood that clearly wasn't yours all over your body was freaky.

'I was at work before the party.'

My mind went over the evidence given to me and what Becky said. Molly worked in a morgue, but I never saw blood on her in any of her photos. But Molly was clean and serious. Becky was an idiot. But why would a 14 year old be working in a morgue? They wouldn't have the right knowledge, so it couldn't be a morgue, but it was definitely something to do with dead bodies. Sherlock faked his death, as did Irene, and to do that, you'd need a body. And you'd probably need to put blood on it. 'You work faking dead bodies, don't you?'

'Well done, Rose.' Becky had stopped crying and was looking at me smugly through her watery eyes.

'But who are you working for?' Who would need dead bodies faking? There was Sherlock, but Molly helped him, and it's not like they were working for anyone. And Irene. What did it say in her case file? "Thank goodness for the consultant criminal." I took a step back.

'Worked it out, Daisy?'

'You work for Jim Moriarty.'

'Don't be ridiculous. Moriarty isn't real. He's called Richard Brook.'

'And unless you worked for him, you wouldn't know that. Jack, come on. We have to get back to Baker Street and tell my Uncle that Moriarty is still alive!' I grabbed Jack by the hand and pulled him after, out of the front door.

When we were out on the street, Jack pulled at my hand, telling me to stop running. I turned around to see him out of breath and dazed at the sudden change of light. 'Are you sure that Becky works for Moriarty?'

'Positive.' Jack still looked unsure. 'Is Becky good at biology?'

'Yeah, she's the best in the school at it. It's the only thing she's good at.' I looked at Jack with my eyebrows raised. 'Oh, she's good at biology, so therefore she knows the anatomy of the human body and could fake a dead body. I get it now.' I shook my head and carried on running, leaving him stood outside of Becky's house. 'Wait, Lily! I'm coming too!'

The door was unlocked, as promised, and we ran upstairs. 'Uncle! John! Where are you?' I burst in to the living room to find no one there. John's laptop had been switched off, but the lid was still open with a sticky note stuck to it. "Gone to Scotland Yard. May be back late. Have left a pizza in the fridge with instructions on how to cook it if you get hungry. Jack's welcome to stay for a bit. John."

'Do you know the way to Scotland Yard?'

'Yeah, if you still have your Underground ticket. I am not running all the way there.' Jack pulled out his Underground ticket from his trouser pocket, and I grabbed mine from the study desk. 'Come on then. We'll get the Underground from the Baker Street station. The nearest Underground station to Scotland Yard is St. James Park.' We ran down the stairs and out of the flat, Mrs Hudson calling as we went.

'Lily? Is that you?' I guess she'll never know.

'Sally! Where's my Uncle?'

'I'm sorry, who are you?'

'Where is Sherlock Holmes?'

'In Greg's office. Who are you? How did you two get in?' Me and Jack had arrived at Scotland Yard, and we had managed to slip past all of the alarms and had somehow made it into Lestrade's division. Sally began to follow us as we headed to the far end of the room, but she turned around and marched out of the room shouting for security.

'…for the billionth time, I put a squash ball under my armpit to mask my pulse! That's why John couldn't find it! It doesn't matter how good a doctor you are, if you put a squash ball under your armpit, you won't be able to find your pulse!' A young officer sat near to the door of Lestrade's office kept on jumping slightly every time my Uncle raised his voice.

'Can we go in?'

'If you can calm Mr Holmes down, yes.' I smiled at him and Jack opened the door to find John stood by the window and Sherlock leaning over the desk looking intensely at Greg who was sat in an office chair.

'Uncle! We have some news about Moriarty.'

Sherlock turned to face me. 'Moriarty is dead, Lily. I saw him kill himself.'

'John saw you kill yourself, but you're still here. If he's dead, where's the pathology report?' No one said anything. 'Greg, when you went to search the roof after Sherlock jumped, what did you find?'

'Sherlock's mobile.'

'Anything else? Blood? A gun? A body?' Greg shook his head and I tilted my head at my Uncle. 'A girl at the party, Becky… what's her last name, Jack?'

'Becky Gardner.'

'She fakes dead bodies, and she works for Moriarty. She must have helped him to fake his death right in front of you. He's alive, Uncle. And now you're back and wandering around without fear of being spotted, so will he. And he'll be out to get you.'

Sherlock stood up straight and sat back in a chair. 'How did you get past the security?'

'There was a delivery van outside so we each took a box and followed the delivery men inside and just walked around until we found Lestrade's division. The boxes are by Sally's desk: I have no idea what's in them. Oh, and she went to get security.'

'Yeah, they're coming this way.' Greg got up and left his office, telling two of the security officers that had arrived to take the boxes that me and Jack had brought up to the right divisions, having a go at Sally in the process.

'Well done, Lily.' I turned to see Sherlock smiling at me a little.

'For what?'

'For getting Lestrade to have a go at Sally. I've always wanted to see him do that. There are just a few things that I need to go over about my death with Lestrade, you should go home, Lily.'

'If it won't take long, we may as well wait for you.' Sherlock narrowed his eyes then nodded.

'Fair point. But go and wait outside the office, and take John with you. He's had enough for one day.' John turned around from his place by the window and quickly walked out of the room before me and Jack could.

'Are you okay, John?' I waited until Jack had volunteered to get us all some water before asking him, in case he felt embarrassed saying it in front of someone he barely knew.

'Yeah, it was just that I hadn't really relived that day until Sherlock started talking about it in the office. When Greg came to pick us up a few minutes after you left with Jack, I was going along for moral support, but I think I needed the support more than Sherlock did. But I think it helped though.'

'Good.' We both smiled. 'What does being called a whore mean?'

'I'm sorry?'

'At the party, Becky called me a whore, but I didn't know what she meant.'

'It means a prostitute. You do know what that is, yeah?'

'I'm not that much of an idiot.' Jack approached, carrying two plastic cups of water. 'Thanks, Jack.' I said as he handed me one and John the other. 'Where's yours?'

'I can only carry two, Lily. It's not like I have 3 hands.' He stuck his tongue out at me, making me laugh, and as he began to walk back towards the water fountain to get a drink for himself, I felt my heart rate speed up again.

'John, you're a doctor.'

'Yes, and the last time someone said that to me was the first time I went to a crime scene. What is it?'

'If your heart beat speeds up, pupils dilate, cheeks grow hotter and you stumble over your words all at the same time, what's wrong with you?'

'Nothing. If anything, it means you're human.'

'But what else does it mean?' I took a sip of my water, smelling Jack on the cup and feeling my heart rate speed up once again.

'It means that you're… actually, you can work it out for yourself. And don't bother asking your Uncle what it means, he's still trying to work out what it means too. I'll give you a tenner though if you can work it out before he does.'

'Deal.'

'If she can work out what before me?'


	6. Chapter 6

Thank you to my reviewers, **Kamerer220 **and **TUYCCUTBMLS**!

CHAPTER 6-

A week later, Sherlock hadn't had a single case, just press calling at the door wanting to talk to him about how he faked his death and how John felt about his return. I was always sent up to my room so they couldn't write about me when they came in to interview them, but there was some speculation in the Sun about the pink hoodie left on the settee. Obviously it was mine, but being the most idiotic newspaper ever, it was obviously Sherlock's secret lover's. I happily went up to my room, for either Jack or Kitty were always around to keep my company.

I had been round to Jack's twice, but he took a lot of convincing. I could see why. He lived with his mum, and with her problem, their flat was a mess and his mum was always unconscious because she was either so drunk or couldn't cope with not drinking.

'Just ignore the mess. Actually, we'll go in my room. It's tidier in there and there aren't takeaways strewn all over the floor.' Jack swallowed down a lump in his throat and led me to his bedroom. 'Just sit down. Do you want some lemonade?' I nodded. 'I'll be back in a minute.'

I looked around his bedroom. It was painted dark grey, with a bed in the middle of the room which had sheets to match. There was a small bedside table with a lamp and a book on it. The other furniture in the room was a bookcase, stacked up with classics and poetry, a wardrobe and a small settee. The whole room smelled of Jack, but there was an underlying smell of alcohol. I went over to the window to open it to find that it would only open a short way before it automatically locked into a half open-half shut position.

'You can sit down if you want.' Jack handed me a glass of lemonade and he sat down on the settee. 'Sorry for bringing you here. I shouldn't have.'

'Jack,' I joined him on the settee. 'I seriously don't mind, I just thought you'd be getting sick of coming round to 221B all of the time.'

'Believe me, it's better than being here all of the time, even if your Uncle can be annoying.' I hit him softly and took a sip of my lemonade.

'Why does your room smell of alcohol?'

'If my mum wants to go to her bedroom, she occasionally mistakes mine for hers and stinks up the place with alcohol. I know you're wondering about the windows too. It's to stop my mum from throwing things out of the window or jumping out. I mean, she could always go out of the front door and do that, but she's never been sober enough to work that out.' He took a sip of his own lemonade before speaking again. 'Come on, let's go to your Uncle's.'

'No, we're staying here.' Before he could protest I had got up, put my glass on the bedside table and had gone through into the kitchen. I opened one of the cupboards and began to open a bottle of vodka.

'Lily, opening a bottle of vodka isn't going to help my mum.' I took the top off properly and poured its contents down the sink. 'Actually, I get where you're going with this.'

After 3 and a half hours, we had emptied all of the alcohol in the flat, poured away any solvents or washing detergents, got rid of any tablets and hidden all of the knives. Then we tidied away all of the takeaways, washed up and put about 5 loads of clothes into the washer and dryer. In the end, the only things left strewn around the flat were mine and Jack's shoes, our blazers and ties.

'Next time, we're getting the How Clean Is Your House team to come around and do this.' Jack said as he collapsed onto his bed.

'It's not like we cleaned everything. I still need to hoover, but I don't want to wake your mum up.' I sat on the edge of the bed, but Jack pulled me by the wrist and got me to lie down with him, putting his arm around me when I did. I felt my heart rate was speeding up again.

'Thank you for helping, but you really didn't need to. We could've just gone back to your Uncle's.'

'I wanted to help, and Mrs Hudson tidies up 221B so I'm unemployed there.' We both laughed. Is this what having a friend was like? Is this what John and Sherlock did when I wasn't around? Just sit and chat and laugh?

'When we went to the party the other night, you said you didn't have a childhood.' I nodded. 'Didn't your maid ever play with you?'

'Not really. We made jokes if one of us found something funny, but there was a strict amount of things that she could talk to me about. We weren't allowed to talk about my mum, and after Sherlock "died", that topic was forbidden too. I wasn't allowed to know anything bad that had happened in the news, like a serial killer on the loose, or that a bomb had been dropped. I was only allowed to know things like England won the football last night and the government are increasing housing benefits. As long as it wouldn't upset up and wasn't on my Dad's forbidden list, we could talk about it.'

'So, you never had any toys?'

'I had a teddy bear and a few jigsaws.'

'Did you ever get tickled?'

'Did I ever get what?' I sat up to look at Jack and he propped himself up on his bed.

'Tickled.'

'That's something that makes you laugh, isn't it?'

'Yes. And it feels like this.' Jack reached one of his hands out and began to move it quickly over my tummy, making me laugh uncontrollably. He reached out his other hand and tickled me even more, almost causing me to fall off the bed.

'Jack, stop!' I managed to say in between giggling. Jack did as I asked, and I sat on the end of the bed, calming myself down. 'I have no idea why no one ever did that to me before.' Jack laughed.

'Have you ever had a pillow fight?' I heard Jack say from behind me.

'No, but I know what it entitles.' Quickly, Jack hit me on the back with a pillow. I turned slightly to look at him, seeing him grin. 'It's like that, is it?' I picked up a pillow from the end of the bed and hit him back. Soon, there were feathers flying everywhere, and it was hard to stay quiet because we were having so much fun.

'Ah!' Jack hit me with his pillow and I didn't have time to block it, causing me to nearly fall of the bed again. He grabbed me by the hand just in time, and I fell onto his chest as we both thumped back down on the bed, laughing as we went.

'Sorry, I shouldn't have hit you so hard.'

'You don't sound very sorry.'

'Well, you don't sound like you care that much.' We both laughed again. 'Okay, next question. Have you ever been in love before?'

'Not that I know of. I love my Uncle and my mum, even though she's dead, but I've never been in love before. What on earth has this got to do with my lack of a childhood?'

'Well, the reason you've never been in love, or don't know if you've been in love, is because you've been locked away for so long and don't really know what being in love feels like.'

'What does-'

Someone began knocking on the door, interrupting what I was about to say. 'Back in a minute.' Jack got up from the bed and left his room to go and answer the door. I didn't follow him completely, and hung my head out of the doorway to his bedroom as he answered the front door. 'Sherlock! How do you know where I live?'

'I'd be a rubbish Uncle if I didn't know where my niece's friend lived. Lily, get your blazer, it's not safe for you to be here at this time.'

'What? Why not?' I came down the hallway until I was stood next to Jack at the front door.

'Moriarty sent me this about 10 minutes ago.' Sherlock took a picture out of coat pocket and handed it to me. It was a picture of me and Jack earlier, about to go into the Underground station after school. Over my face was a circle with a cross through it, making it look like a target. 'I came here straight away. You two were right, now that I'm back, so is Moriarty, and he knows that targeting my friends isn't enough, so he has to target my family as well.'

'As well?'

'I got a similar one's of John, Lestrade and Mrs Hudson. And Molly this time. Jack, you better watch yourself too. I got this one of you.' My Uncle pulled out another photo, this time of me and Jack heading to the party the other night. Instead of a target over Jack's face, there was a question mark, then a face winking. Me and Jack looked at each other worriedly. 'I'm sorry. We need to go Lily. Jack, don't go out late at night unless you really have to and try not to go out alone, even if it is the middle of the day. Just watch yourself. Are you ready to go, Lily?'

'Err yeah. Sorry, Jack.'

'It's okay, Lily, really.'

'No it's not.' I felt my eyes beginning to tear up.

'Don't cry, Lily. It could be worse. We could've already been kidnapped tonight.' Jack pulled me into his arms and hugged me tightly, stroking my hair. 'It'll be alright.' I felt a few of my tears land on Jack's shirt. 'I'll see you at school tomorrow, yeah? I'll even come and around to yours in the morning and we'll get the Underground together, okay?'

'Yeah, okay.' Jack handed me over to Sherlock and gave him my school bag. My Uncle helped me over to the taxi where John was waiting inside.

'Stay inside, Jack, we'll see you tomorrow morning.' Jack nodded and shut the front door. 'John, hold this.' Sherlock handed John my school bag and I sat in between them in the taxi with my head lent on Sherlock's shoulder. I must have fallen asleep on the way home, for I woke up in my bed the next morning.

Jack came round the next morning as promised to take me to school. He looked incredibly tired and told me that he wouldn't be able to come around after school as he needed to catch up on sleep and look after his mum: shortly after I left, she woke up and began shouting and screaming at him because she couldn't find any alcohol. So Kitty came around instead.

'I can't believe I'm stood here right now, about to go into the flat. Did you know that none of the other believe in Sherlock campaigners have ever been inside here?'

'No, I didn't.'

'They're all going to be so jealous.'

'I can imagine.' If all Kitty was going to do all night was talk about things I already knew about my Uncle, then it could be a long night. 'Come on.' I led Kitty up the stairs into the living room, with her squealing behind me all the way. 'Hey Uncle, this is Kitty. She's one of the believe in Sherlock campaigners.'

Kitty leapt forward and stuck out her hand for Sherlock to shake. 'I'm a big fan Mr Holmes, and may I say, it is a privilege to be stood here talking to you.'

'Please, call me Sherlock.' Sherlock shook Kitty's hand. 'Take a seat, John's cooking a risotto for tea, it'll be ready soon.'

'But how did you know I was coming over?'

'I didn't. But John always cooks extra in case Lily brings home a friend, usually Jack, or in case I get peckish mid-week and can't be bothered cooking.'

'Oh, that's disappointing.' The grin on Kitty's face dampened slightly, but she was still smiling as she sat down on the settee. 'It's the legendary union jack cushion! I've waited a lifetime to see this!' Kitty began to squeal again as she sat down on the settee and looked in awe at a cushion.

'It's hardly unlikely that you waited a lifetime, possibly quite an extensive period of time, but certainly not a lifetime. Now, Lily, after much thought over the events of yesterday, I decided to buy you a mobile phone. Being like me, I doubt you'll need the instructions, and I've already entered in numbers you may need.'

'Such as?'

'Such as mine, John's, our home phone, Mrs Hudson's, Molly's and Lestrade's. I've also put in your school's, Donovan's and Anderson's, but I sincerely doubt that you will need them. And I've also put in Jack's.'

'How on earth did you get Jack's mobile number?'

'The same way I found out where he lived. After you have told him that you have it, you may want to text him regularly, as you seem to be coming quite close friends.'

'And what on earth gave you that impression?'

'Well, when I came to pick you up last night, Jack seemed rather tense and you looked ruffled by my presence. And when you hugged, it looked you were suffocating each other.'

'Meaning?'

'I've no idea, I'm not an expert on human affection. Ask John.'

'You've really let yourself go, haven't you?'

'Who said my name?' John peered his head around from the kitchen and the sizzle of the food cooking. His gaze slipped across to the settee where Kitty was sitting, who was still eagerly looking around the flat. 'Are you called Kitty?'

'Yeah, hi John. Does the t-shirt Clive gave you fit okay?'

'It's brilliant. It's my new favourite t-shirt. Have you got any different designs?'

'Yeah, loads. I'll bring some pictures next time I come round here.'

'Please don't say you're referring to that t-shirt you were wearing when I came back.'

'The very same.'

'Woah. Hold up. How do you and John know each other?'

'On the anniversary of Sherlock's death, John was outside the hospital where the rest of the campaigners were, so we gave him a t-shirt with the slogan on.'

'How are Clive and Jessamine? Still going strong?'

'Yeah, they're so cute together.' I have absolutely no idea what's going on…

'Is tea almost ready John?'

'Yes, Lily. It'll be about 5 minutes, so go and get changed. Where's Jack tonight?'

'He had to look after his mum after the events of last night.'

'Because he was threatened with potential murder by Moriarty?'

'The plot thickens…' Kitty had found Sherlock's deerstalker underneath the settee and had put it on, trying to look enigmatic.

'You are really starting to freak me out; you have the same name as a journalist who betrayed me last year, and wearing that deerstalker doesn't help your case either.'

'Do you mean Kitty Riley? The journalist who helped to fake Moriarty's papers and who printed the story of you being a fraud and tried to get you to sign her shirt in the court toilets and gave you her card?'

'I'm going to get changed.' This is going to be a long night.

It was the following day in maths when I worked out how to work out what was wrong with my body and get a tenner from John.

'So, Adam, how would I find what x equals?'

'Google it, Sir.'

'Not the answer I was looking for, Lucy?'

'That's it!' I whispered.

'What are you talking about?' Jack managed to tear himself away from the whiteboard to look at me.

'The answer of how to work out the answer of the problem I'm having and win ten pounds off John. I'll just type my symptoms into Google and see what comes up. Someone in the world is bound to have felt the same as me, right?'

'I didn't understand the first sentence of what you said, but if it's symptoms you're having, why don't you talk to John about it?'

'I did, but he bet me ten pounds that I could find out what the symptoms meant before my Uncle could.'

'Lily! Jack! Why are you talking whilst I'm teaching?'

'Why are you teaching whilst we're talking?' Jack smirked beside me and soon the whole class were laughing, including Becky.

'Right, Lily, Jack, out! Everyone, shut up!' Me and Jack left the classroom still smirking and leant against the walls outside the classroom on the corridor.

'That was brilliant, Lily.'

'Thank you.' Jack's phone in his pocket went off, alerting him he had a text. 'Who is it?'

'My mum.' We looked at each other strangely. 'She says she's making pizza for tea and I should bring around the friend who helped me clean the flat as she knows it wouldn't have been my idea to do it and I would have had help. Plus, she heard us laughing and pillow fighting.' Jack turned to me with raised up eyebrows. 'For someone who was unconscious, she sure hears a lot. Do you want to come around for tea then?'

'Yes, but I'll need to ask my Uncle.' I took out my own phone and slowly began to text my Uncle. How people have learned to cope with these devices is beyond me.

**Can I go around to Jack's for tea? LH**

Sherlock replied almost immediately:

**Yes, but be on guard for any suspicious behaviour around you and I'll come and pick you up at 8:30. I'm not going to take any chances with you. SH**

'He says yes, but he's coming to pick me up at half eight as he doesn't want me to take any chances with me getting kidnapped or murdered.'

We put our phones back in our pockets before Jack spoke again. 'Has your Uncle got any more photos of people with targets on them?'

'Not unless they arrived whilst I've been at school.'

'I know I haven't been properly targeted like you or John, but do you think that I could have a picture of Moriarty? Just in case he approaches me?'

'I doubt it would be him to approach you, he'd probably get someone else to do it. But it's a good idea. I'll ask Sherlock when I get home if you can have one. But, just be aware that the next lad to approach you might not be one of your friends enquiring as to why you're spending all of your time with a girl.' We both smiled and Mr Driver came out of his classroom.

'Now, you two. What do you have to say for yourselves?'

'Sorry, Mr Driver.'

'It won't happen again.'

'Right, well ermmm… that's good. Go back into class.' Well, clearly Mr Driver was expecting that from us.

'Mum, I know you won't have… wow, you actually have made pizza.' Me and Jack caught the underground back to his flat, expecting to find his mum ordering a pizza, but when we got to the flat, she actually had made pizza.

'Well it's kind of hard when someone hide's all of the knives. Hi Lily. How are you?'

Okay, the only person who would do that kind of thing is Sherlock, so Jack's mum freaked me out straight away. 'Hi, Miss Howell. I'm fine thank you. How are you?'

'Please, call me Stacey. I'm good. I'll get you a glass of lemonade. Jack, tea will be ready in 5 minutes, so go and get changed. Sit down, Lily. We can chat whilst we wait. Go on, Jack.' Jack looked suspiciously at his mum before dropping his bag by the door to the kitchen and went into his bedroom. As I sat down, Jack's mum handed me a glass of lemonade and I took a sip of it before putting it down on the table. 'So, Lily, how long have you been friends with Jack for?'

'Just over 2 weeks. I've just started at the academy and I'm in most of his lessons.'

'That's nice. So have you just moved to London then?'

'Yeah, I lived with my Dad, but he sent me to live with my Uncle and his flatmate for a while.'

'Ohhhh. Are they gay?'

'No. John has a girlfriend and my Uncle is asexual.'

'He breeds by himself?'

'Has no sexual contact with others.'

'Oh right.' Jack's mum nodded. 'Do you ermm… like my son?'

She said my son, is she being over protective? Does she not want me to his friend? 'Yes, he's a very good friend. I've never met anyone like him.' Strictly speaking, I've hardly met anyone at all, so it wasn't the most difficult feat to complete.

'I don't mean in that way.' I looked at her puzzled. 'Are you interested in Jack?'

'He's not that interesting, he's fairly normal. To make him interesting, he'd have to have an abnormal hair colour or something like that.'

'You have honestly no idea what I'm implying here, do you?' I shook my head and took another sip of lemonade.

'Is tea almost ready, Mum?' I turned around to see Jack stood in the doorway to the kitchen, dressed in blue baggy jeans and a white t-shirt. I felt my heart do summer salts as he smiled at me, and I knew my cheeks were going red.

'Yep, will you just get out three plates and put them on the side? Thanks.' As Jack moved to one of the cupboards I turned back around to see Stacey looking at me with a wild grin on her face. I smiled back and took another sip of lemonade. She is really freaking me out. 'Why have your cheeks gone red, Lily? Is it too hot in here?'

'No, the temperature's fine. I'm just going to go to the bathroom. Please excuse me: I won't be long.'

I splashed water on my face for the third time, hoping the redness on my cheeks would go away. Did Jack's mum always speak with a wild grin on her face? And what was she implying asking me all of those questions about Jack? I couldn't think for the life of me what she meant.

'Lily? Are you okay in there? Your pizza's going cold.'

'Yeah, I'm fine.' I opened the door to see Jack stood with his hands in his pockets, as cool and as relaxed as ever. 'I'm not sure what happened.'

'You don't look very well. Do you want me to call Sherlock?'

'I'll be fine. It's probably because I haven't eaten anything today.'

'Why? It's not like you're fat.'

'I just don't get hungry.'

'You need to eat! Come on, it's pepperoni pizza: your favourite.' I opened my mouth to speak but he answered my question before I asked it. 'Sherlock told me a while ago.'

'Tonight was great, thank you, Jack.'

'It was my pleasure. Come round any time you want.' Me and Jack were stood outside his front door saying goodbye to each other as Sherlock and John waited patiently in a cab a few metres away. We hugged and I started to walk towards the taxi before Jack called me back. 'Lily, wait.' I turned and walked back to Jack.

'What is it?'

'There's this disco tomorrow night at the academy that the sixth formers are organising. It's for everyone, and I know it sounds really not cool, but I've been to them before and they're a lot of fun, and I was wondering if you wanted to go. But, I wouldn't be able to take you there as I have football practice after school, but I could bring you back and Kitty would be going as she's helping to organise it, so you could ask her to take you.'

'Yeah, okay. Do I have to wear a dress?'

'Yeah, it's part of the dress code: girls have to wear dresses and lads have to wear a shirt and smart pants. And you have to wear a mask.'

I laughed. 'Okay, I'll go. I'll see you tomorrow at school.' I smiled and finally got in the cab.

'There's a white lace mask on your bed to go with your white lace dress. Don't be home any later than half ten.'

I smiled at my Uncle and hugged him. To my surprise, he held me back equally as tight.


	7. Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7-

When Kitty knocked on the door, I was just finishing getting ready for the disco.

'I'll get it boys! And Lily of course!' Mrs Hudson was still getting used to my presence around the flat, but my Uncle and John had been trying to keep things tidier for my benefit, so she should have been thanking me as there wasn't that much to tidy up anymore.

'You look nice, Lily.'

'Thanks, John.' I was wearing the white lace dress with white pumps, my mum's pink bracelet and a silver necklace. 'Shall I put the mask on now or at the disco?'

'Just hang it around your neck and put it on when you get to the academy. Jack's bringing you back tonight, yeah?' I nodded. John smiled. 'We'll leave the door open, just remember to lock it though. The key's in the pot in the hallway.'

'I know. And before you ask, yes I have got my phone and some money and my underground ticket. They're all in my bag, see?' I held up my small black side bag before I swung it over my shoulder.

'Go away! Please, child!' Me and John both laughed at Sherlock's begging for Kitty to stop asking him questions about past cases. We came down the stairs to find Sherlock with sat down next to the study desk with his head down on it, whilst Kitty was sat opposite him asking him endless questions.

'Kitty, stop tormenting my Uncle. We need to go.' Kitty stopped talking and turned to look at me.

'Ohhhh. You look nice. Jack's a very lucky boy.'

'What?'

'Jack. Jack Howell. You know, the lad you've been hanging out with practically every second of the day since you started at the academy.'

'I do not.' Do I?

'And your pupils dilate whenever you're near him, and your cheeks go pink, and you sometimes can't speak properly. I bet your heart beat speeds up too, right?'

'Yeah, it does.' I realised that what she was describing was the symptoms that I'd been having that I was supposed to Google. I turned to face John. 'I've worked it out! Heart rate speeding up, cheeks going pink, pupils dilating and tripping up in your speech means… What does it mean?' I turned back to Kitty.

'It means falling in love.'

'Means falling in love.' I smiled at John and he smirked. Sherlock got up and stood next to John. He gave me the strangest look I've ever seen, as if he had just walked in a forest to find Voldemort and Dumbledore having a picnic 'What?'

'Congratulations, Kitty. You won ten pounds off me.' John went over to his chair and got his wallet and gave Kitty a ten pound note.

'Thank you, John.'

'How on earth are we related?' Sherlock twirled a lock of my curly hair around his finger before shutting himself up in his bedroom.

'He'll be fine. Have a nice time you two. And Lily, get in there.' John laughed and went upstairs, leaving me and Kitty in the living room.

'Oh, your mask is so much nicer than mine. Mine's just black, yours has lace on it.'

'It just goes with my dress, my Uncle bought it for me. That's not the point, Kitty! What am I going to do about Jack?'

'Nothing. Lads are supposed to make the first move. We'll talk about this in more detail on the tube.'

We had been at the disco two hours now, and there was no sign of Jack. How long was football practice? Or maybe there was something wrong with his mum. I got out my phone to text him, but supressed the urge. But what if Moriarty had got him? No, don't be stupid, Lily. Sherlock would know by now if he had, and would have been round here like a shot to make sure I was safe. But it was ten o'clock, and Jack was supposed to take me home for half ten. I put my phone back in my bag and walked over to where Kitty was helping to sell the drinks.

'Hey, Lily. Do you want another drink?'

'No, I feel sick. Jack's not here yet and he's supposed to be taking me home soon. What if something's happened to him?'

'Have you texted him?'

'No, I don't want to seem eager, like you said on the way here.'

'Lily, Jack's not going to know that you like him. If Sherlock couldn't tell that you had fallen in love, Jack's certainly not going to know. And besides, I think he likes you too.'

'What? Really? How can you tell?'

'His pupils dilate and his cheeks go slightly pink when he sees you, like the way he did at that party.'

'But he doesn't stumble over his words like the way I do.'

'Lads tend to try and look cool instead of doing that. You know, like putting their hands in their pockets a lot, leaning against walls; that kind of thing. Oh, guess what? He's just walked in. Don't turn around, but he looks like really fit.'

'What's he wearing? For when I need to find him.'

'Black pants, black smart shoes, a white shirt and a black mask. And he's heading this way.' Kitty squealed. 'He seems to know it's you. Does he know that you own a white dress?'

'Yeah, he prefers it to the black one I have. Is he almost here?'

'He's about halfway across the hall. You make such a perfect couple!' Kitty squealed again.

'Right, I can't do this. I'm too scared. Jack's the first boy I've ever met, not to mention the first person I've fallen in love with. I need some fresh air.' I half ran-half walked across the hall and went outside into the school grounds. I heard someone walking in my direction from inside the hall, so I walked quickly around the corner of the school grounds and lent against a wall, breathing in the warm June air.

I still couldn't believe that I had fallen in love, but it made sense now. I always wanted to be around Jack, and I wanted my Uncle and John to like him, because they're a big part of my life; that's why I was always inviting him back to the flat. And I think Kitty was right, that he liked me too. His cheeks did colour up slightly when he saw me, and when we hugged he was reluctant to let go. I think he was going to kiss me the other day, after the pillow fight, but Sherlock interrupted before he could.

'Hey.'

'Hey.' Jack walked around the corner and stood opposite me, making my heart do flips. Kitty was right, he did look fit. Why was I always incapable of thinking like this before?

'Kitty said you were outside.'

'Yeah, it was hot in there. I needed some fresh air.' Jack nodded and smiled.

'You look nice.'

'Thank you. So do you.' We both smiled and looked down at the floor. Anyone could tell that we liked each other, we were just both too nervous to admit it.

'Who are we kidding?' Jack laughed before speaking again. 'You don't just look nice, you look beautiful.' Jack stepped forward and took down my mask, letting it fall around my neck. 'I know we've only known each for just over 2 weeks, but I fell for you as soon as I saw you on your first day here at the academy. And I know that this will sound stupid, but I love you, Lily.'

'It doesn't sound stupid, Jack.' I reached up my hand and took down his mask, letting it drop around his neck like mine.

Jack stepped forward even closer to me. I was so nervous, I backed up as far as I could against the wall, which wasn't very far; I just ended up standing up really straight. Jack was so close to me now that I was sure that he could hear my heart about to explode. 'Are you nervous?' I nodded. 'Will you let me kiss you?'

'Yes, but I wouldn't know what to do.' What on earth am I saying? I want him to kiss me. I love him, and I'm just putting him off.

'Close your eyes and hold out your hands.' I did as he said, feeling more nervous than ever. He moved my left hand onto his neck, and my right hand to half on his shoulder and half on his chest, so I could feel his heart pumping blood at the same rate as mine. Jack then put one hand on my waist and the other on my cheek. 'Just relax, Lily.' Jack's mouth brushed softly up against my own, slowly moving his lips in between mine. He pulled away and I opened my eyes to find him looking at me, innocently as ever. 'Do you know what to do now?' I nodded, stepped forward and kissed him, taking him by surprise. He pushed me back against the wall, still kissing me slowly.

We had been stood there for a few minutes kissing before Jack pulled away again. 'I need to get you home.' He took my hand and walked me through the busy hall, a few people staring at us. The popular guy and the new girl. Not a match I would've made either, but I'm glad someone else did. We left the academy and got on the Underground to Baker Street, sitting close together. When we got off, I didn't want the night to end.

Jack walked me to the door of the flat, but as I was about to go in, I turned around to face Jack again. 'Do you think one of Moriarty's men is watching us?'

'If they are, they get to see me kiss you good night.' Jack put his hand around my waist and pulled my close and kissed me again. This time I pulled away and smiled.

'Good night, Jack. I'll see you tomorrow.'

'Yeah, we have maths first. Can't wait.'

'I'd never thought I'd hear you say that.' We both smiled and I went into 221, closing the door behind me. I ran up the stairs and into the living room, quietly stalking across the room, not wanting to wake my Uncle sleeping on the settee, and drew back the curtains by the window to see Jack. He was stood opposite the flat, just putting his phone in his pocket. My phone buzzed and I took it out of my bag to read the text I'd received.

**Good night beautiful. Jack xxx**

I smiled and blew him a kiss. He laughed and began to walk down the street towards the Underground entrance. I watched until he was out of sight, then crept up the stairs and got in bed, still fully-clothed.

'Lily, why was the key to the front door on the floor? Why didn't you put them back in the pot? And why are you still wearing your dress?' My Uncle was stood in my bedroom, jangling the front door keys in front of my face.

'If I'm being honest, I don't even remember locking the front door. I was so tired.' I rubbed my eyes and got of my bed, putting on my dressing gown which I'd left on the floor from when I got out of the shower before the disco last night. The thought of the disco made me smile, and my Uncle stared at me strangely.

'What are you smiling at?'

'Nothing.'

Sherlock sniffed the air then carried on speaking. 'Come and get something high in sugar to drink then come and get dressed. You're going to be late.'

'It's 7 o'clock, Uncle. I am not going to be late.' Sherlock shook his head, sniffed the air once more, and left. I tied my dressing gown and left my room, slowly walking down the stairs and into the living room.

'Hey, Lily. Did you have a good time with Jack last night?' I turned to see John sat at the study desk, drinking tea out of his usual mug.

I nodded. 'He kissed me.' John grinned and Sherlock made some strange noise.

'It's breakfast, Lily. We don't want to hear about it.' I laughed quietly and went to get a glass of lemonade from the kitchen.

'Lemonade? Seriously? It's 7 o'clock in the morning.'

'Uncle said to drink something high in sugar.' I gulped it down then went upstairs to get dressed. Back in my bedroom, I tripped over my bag which I'd swung on the floor before I'd got into bed. I took my phone out of it and read the text from Jack again. I sighed happily and got dressed. Today is going to be good, I know it.

I take that back. I haven't seen Jack all day. He wasn't in maths, or any of my lessons after that. I had forgotten my phone, so I couldn't text him. 'He'll be fine.'

'You don't know that.' I had lunch with Kitty instead of Jack, due to his mysterious absence from all of my lessons.

'He will. What do you have last?'

'English in room 31. Why?'

'I'll come and meet you, and we'll go and ask some of his friends if they know where he is.' I nodded.

'Did you see me and Jack walk across the hall last night?'

'Honey, everyone saw. People just pretended not to notice, they were all kind of hoping that he would go out with Becky. Her anger over what happened at the party has made her bullying rate increase.'

'Does she know that me and Jack kissed?'

'Yeah, everyone knows. Oh dear, she's walking towards our bench. Get ready.' I looked up to see Becky storming across the school grounds towards me, her hair practically on fire with rage.

'You little slut.' Becky said when she got close enough to me so that I could hear her. She tried to slap me, but missed for the second time she tried.

'And you're not even drunk this time.'

'Shut up, Tulip. Is it true that you kissed Jack?'

'Technically speaking, he kissed me, then I kissed him, then he kissed me again. So, yes, it is true, but he kissed me first.' Becky shot evils at me. 'What? Just because you have to pay someone to kiss you.'

'Moriarty will make you pay for this!'

'Yeah, just tell him I'm a younger female version of my Uncle; then I doubt he'll make me pay.' Becky stomped her foot on the floor and stormed off like a stroppy five year old.

'Anyway, I'll come and meet you outside your English class.'

It wasn't until the first 5 minutes of English starting when I saw Jack for the first time today. He walked in late, saying Miss Riley wanted to talk to him. I tried to catch his eye as he went to sit down on the opposite side of the classroom, but he just took out his book and got on with the lesson.

At the end of the lesson, I stood outside the classroom, not only waiting for Kitty as promised, but waiting to confront Jack. He was usually out first, but I knew he was still in the classroom, hoping I'd already gone. Clearly, his deductive skills weren't as finely tuned as mine.

He came out of the classroom and walked straight into me. 'Hi, Jack. Where have you been all day? Skiving in the toilets maybe? Or perhaps truanting on the school field?'

'The library, actually. I told the librarian that I was in year 11 and I had to catch up on my course work.'

'So, were you just going to ignore me for the rest of the year then?'

'Don't be stupid, for the rest of your life.' I stepped back wards slightly. I certainly wasn't expecting that. 'Everything was a dare, Lily. I don't love you, my friends dared me to kiss you. It's not my fault, that you have a crush on me, it just made it easier to trick you into thinking that I liked you. Have a nice life, Lily.' Jack walked off down the corridor, looking pleased with himself. I opened my mouth to say something, but no sound came out. I felt tears beginning to prick at my eyes, but from nowhere, Kitty appeared and guided me at of the school and hailed a cab, quickly bundling me inside of it.

'221 Baker Street, please.' She turned back to me after telling the cab driver where to go. 'Now you can cry.' And Kitty held me as I did, all the way in the cab, up the two flights of stairs and in my bedroom. 'He's not worth your tears, Lily.' I still cried until 6 o'clock that night.

'I'm not going to school.'

'Don't be stupid, Lily. I can't look after you today, I have a lead on Moriarty, but John refuses to go out until he finishes his breakfast. You're going to school.'

'No, I'm not, Uncle. You can drag me there in my pyjamas, but I'll come straight back home.' I curled up in John's chair with a mug of warm milk, not really looking at anything in particular. My mind felt numb from the events of yesterday: what Jack said kind of merged into one sentence, and my journey with Kitty seemed to take an hour instead of 10 minutes.

'Couldn't Molly look after her? Today's her day off, isn't it?'

'Yes, but Molly probably has more important things to be doing than looking after my niece.'

'Just give her a call and ask her Sherlock. We all know she'll do anything for you.' My Uncle shot evils at John.

'Why is that?'

'Molly has-'

'Shut up, John.' Sherlock took out his mobile and rang Molly. '…Yes, I know I only ever text people… look, Molly, what are you doing today?... Do you think you could come here and look after Lily? She's refusing to go to school… I don't know, something about a boy… can you just come round here and talk to her? Last night she cried until six o'clock, and I have no idea how to handle this… thank you, Molly. Good bye.' Uncle hung up and turned to face me. 'Molly's coming around in half an hour to take you out shopping and have a general chat with you. I'll give you some money to spend, just go and get dressed and act a little happier please: Molly could be doing something else on her day off.'

After I'd got dressed, I went back downstairs to curl up in John's chair once more. 'Lily, Molly's here.' John took his jacket off the back of his chair as he told me. 'Will you be okay with Molly?'

'I think it's possibly better than being with Sherlock, like he said, he has no idea how to handle anything like this.'

'Fair point. Have a nice day, just try and smile.' I nodded and raised the corner of my mouth slightly. That was as much as he was going to get at the moment. 'Go and put your coat on, it's raining.' I got up from my position in the chair and began to out my coat on, which I'd left on the settee from a few nights ago.

'Hey, Lily.'

'Hi, Molly.'

'You look terrible.' I shrugged my shoulders and looked at Molly's concerned face.

'You'll be fine. Here's seventy pounds, Lily. I have no idea what price female clothes are, so just take that. I may not be back tonight, or I may go out again, it depends how good this lead we have is. Have a nice time, and like John said, try and smile, for me?' I nodded and hugged my Uncle, immersing myself in his trench coat. He held me back tightly, and kissed the top of my head. 'I'll see you later, Lily.' Sherlock let go of me and smiled, heading out of the door with John.

'Your Uncle said you were having trouble with boys.' I nodded. 'It's a good job your Uncle called me then: I'm an expert on that subject. I'll try and make you see that everything will be alright again in time, but I can't make you any promises.' I hugged Molly and began to cry again. 'Come on, Lily. Don't ruin your beautiful face. If this boy that you're upset about isn't stood in your Uncle's living room by the time we get back this afternoon, you can cry until six o'clock again. Okay?' I nodded and wiped away my tears.

I guess I'll be crying until six o'clock then.


	8. Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8-

'Sit down there. I'll just go and order.' It was about ten o'clock, and me and Molly had just got off the Underground and headed to a small café for brunch, since neither of us had eaten anything that morning. My mind was still numb, and I felt like I was full of water; just floating around without any purpose. I stared directly in front looking at a painting in the café, trying to deduce things about it like the way my Uncle would do, but couldn't. I now see why he never fell in love. Because what is he without his brilliant mind?

'How are you doing Lily?' I looked up slightly at Molly as she sat across the table in front of me, blocking the painting from my view. I shrugged and looked down at the table, tracing the lines on it with my finger.

'What did you order?'

'Two skittles milkshakes and two bacon and egg muffins: they always make me feel better when I feel upset.' Molly paused and reached out and took my finger, making me look her in the eye. 'John said you haven't eaten since yesterday lunchtime.' I shrugged again and Molly let go of my finger. 'Just because Sherlock said how are we related, doesn't mean you have to start being like him completely.'

'But I disappointed him.'

'Lily, you've really need to stop caring about what people think about you. Besides, I bet your Uncle has fallen in love before.'

'Seriously?' I doubt that ever happened.

'Well… no, but he's probably had a tiny crush on someone before.'

'You have a crush on him, don't you?' Molly nodded slowly. 'Do you want me to talk to him for you?'

'Really? You'd do that? Wait, no! We're here to sort out your love life, not mine. And frankly, mine would take a lot longer to do.'

'Hi, Molly. Who's your little friend?' A man put a tray down on the table, with two milkshakes and two muffins on it.

'Hi, Sam. This is Lily.' Molly was saying as the waiter put our food and drinks down on the table. 'She's really cut up about a boy.'

'Oh, I get that all the time. Tell me more.' Sam grabbed a chair from the nearest free table and sat next to Molly, two pairs of eyes set on me. 'Chris, I'm going on a break! Now, what's his name? What is he like?'

'He's called Jack. He's really nice, and funny, and sweet and he's… oh, he's brilliant.'

'Does he like you back?'

'Yes. No. I don't know.' I put my head in my hands, not knowing what to do now I was out in public instead of at home where I could cry to my heart's content. Sam got up and hugged me, telling me it was going to be okay.

'What makes you think that he liked you?'

'Whenever he was near me, his pupils dilated and he blushed. And even my friends thought he did too. Either that, or he was telling the truth about his stupid bet…' I told Moly and Sam what happened at the disco and then what happened the day after.

'That's the best excuse I've ever heard for kissing someone. Especially coming from a boy who likes you.'

'Do you honestly think that he does like me?'

'From what I've heard, yes. I'm sure if I got a look at him, I could tell you for certain.'

'No, Sam. The last time I asked you for advice on a boy, he went out with you as he turned out to be bi-sexual. Go back to work.' Sam laughed and collected our two now empty plates, and we carried on drinking our milkshakes. 'Feeling better after you've talked about it?'

'A little. Did Sam really steal a boy off you?'

'Yeah, we were first friends at high school, and I was the only who knew that he was gay. After every one found out, he was open about, and I frequently asked him advice on boys. One of them happened to be bi-sexual and was only getting close to me so he could closer to Sam. I prefer your Uncle though.'

'That's gross, Molly!' We both laughed and continued to drink.

'That's more like it. Come on, finish that up and we'll go shopping. Get back for about four-ish?' I nodded and drank the last bits of my milkshake before grabbing my bag and linking my arm with Molly's; leaving the café looking slightly happier than I did when I got up this morning.

At quarter to four, we got the Underground back to Baker Street, each of us laden with bags. Molly had bought, amongst other things, a beautiful pair of gold coloured sandals in preparation for the upcoming summer. My favourite purchase was a floaty blue top, that reminded me of my Uncle slightly when I wore it, due to the fact of having the two top buttons undone when I wore it.

'Did you have fun today then?'

'Yes, thank you, Molly. I'll probably go back to school on Monday.'

'Well, you know where to find me if you're feeling upset over the weekend.'

I smiled at Molly and then we ascended the stairs at up to the flat, where there were two people arguing. Sherlock and… Jack. I stopped in the doorway, with Molly behind me. Jack and Sherlock stopped shouting and my Uncle turned to look at me.


	9. Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9-

Coming back from the disco at school with Lily leaning against my chest, half asleep, was like a dream come true for me. From the moment I had got myself off the floor after I had tripped over her on her first day at the academy, I fell for her straight away. Her long, curly brown hair complimented her face, which was absolutely beautiful, perfectly. Her eyes were the strangest colour; bits of green, bits of blue, bits of grey and a tiny fleck of brown in them. Her lips were pink as roses, and I wished I could have kissed her right there in the corridor, but I didn't even know her name. I only hoped her personality was as nice as she looked.

When she spoke, she sounded a little like a child, but it only made her even more beautiful. On our way to her first lesson she smiled at me, and I thought that my heart was going to burst. Within five minutes of meeting her, I fell in love with Lily Holmes.

On the night of the disco, I was debating going in. I stood outside for ages. Lily was going to look beautiful as usual, and she wouldn't want to be with a guy like me. She was Sherlock Holmes' niece; beautiful, clever, kind: all of the things guys dreamed for in a girl. I looked at the time on my phone: ten o'clock. For goodness sake, Jack, grow a pair and get in the hall! You're the one who asked her to the disco, and you're the one who's got to get her home for half past. I took a deep breath and entered the hall.

I saw her straight away, standing by the drinks stand, talking to Kitty. She had her back to me, but I could tell it was her. On the night of Becky's party, there were two dresses in her wardrobe that I had found. She was wearing my favourite of the two, the tight, white, knee-length dress, with a lot of lace on it. Kitty saw me and began grinning, so I decided to head over there. I could feel my heart rate increasing with every step towards her, hoping Lily would just run off. I couldn't handle talking to her when she was looking so beautiful.

Thankfully, Lily did walk off outside, but I carried on approaching the drinks stand so I didn't look strange. 'Hey, Kitty.'

'Hi, Jack. Are you looking for Lily? She just went for a walk on the school grounds to get some fresh air. Why don't go and join her? She can't have got far.'

'I will. Thanks, Kitty.'

I turned to go as Kitty spoke again. 'Don't break her heart, Jack, or I swear, your life will not be worth living.' I nodded at Kitty's threatening tone and practically ran outside, away from her and after Lily.

When I got outside, I could her someone, but they moved quickly, probably because they heard me come out of the hall and didn't want to be seen. I looked around at the scene in front of me, but no one was there. Lily must walk fast. I rounded the corner to see Lily lent against the wall, trying to calm herself down. I almost felt my knees give way. The moonlight illuminated her perfectly, and I'd never seen anything more beautiful in my entire life.

I was just going to walk away, but she turned to face me before I could. 'Hey.'

'Hey.' Lily replied, her voice sounding less childlike than normal. I walked over to her, standing opposite her.

'Kitty said you were outside.'

'Yeah, it was hot in there. I needed some fresh air.' I nodded and smiled.

'You look nice.'

'Thank you. So do you.' Just tell her already! You've had girlfriends before, and Lily was just like any other girl. I take that back. I've never met anyone like her before, and I wanted to keep her in my life forever as she seemed so special to me.

'Who are we kidding?' I laughed slightly before speaking again. 'You don't just look nice, you look beautiful.' I stepped forward and took down Lily's mask, letting it fall around her neck to reveal her beautiful face. 'I know we've only known each for just over 2 weeks, but I fell for you as soon as I saw you on your first day here at the academy. And I know that this will sound stupid, but I love you, Lily.'

'It doesn't sound stupid, Jack.' She reached up her hand and took down my mask, letting it drop around my neck like hers.

I stepped forward even closer to Lily. She was so nervous, her face telling me she had already deduced what I wanted to do to her. She stood up really straight against the wall behind her, so she was almost as tall as me. I was so close to her that I could smell the flower perfume that she always wore. 'Are you nervous?' She nodded. Why on earth am I asking her if she's nervous? Just kiss her already! 'Will you let me kiss you?'

'Yes, but I wouldn't know what to do.' Is she trying to put me off? Does she think her Uncle and John won't approve of me? Who cares? I love her.

'Close your eyes and hold out your hands.' She did as I said, putting out two slightly shaking hands out in front of her. Where do most girls have their hands on a boy when they kissed them? Oh, I remember now: it had been a while since I'd had a girlfriend. I moved her left hand onto my neck, feeling how cold her skin was: it was like ice cubes, yet her skin had a normal colour. Then I put her right hand half on my shoulder, half on my chest, deliberately so she could feel how much she made my heart beat. I put one of my hands on her small waist, the other on Lily's cheek. Even though her breathing had calmed down, I felt her whole body tense slightly. 'Just relax, Lily.' Lily's hands fell limp a little, but she still held on to me. I gently pushed my mouth up against Lily's, slowly moving my lips in between hers. After about 10 seconds, I pulled away from Lily, still holding onto her. She opened her eyes and looked into mine, showing me her uniquely coloured irises. 'Do you know what to do now?' Wow, I'd never taught a girl how to kiss before. Lily nodded, stepped forward and kissed me, completely taking me by surprise. I pushed her back against the wall, still kissing her slowly and gently.

By the time I pulled away from Lily, it had felt like we had been kissing for about an hour, but we had only been stood there for a matter of minutes. 'I need to get you home.' What on earth did I say that for? I don't want this night to end. Regardless, I took my hand in hers and walked her through the hall, feeling large amounts of people staring at us, including Becky who had managed to cease flirting with the DJ for a few seconds to glare at us. I didn't care. I loved Lily and that was all that mattered. We left the academy and got on the Underground to Baker Street, Lily sitting with her head on my chest, her eyes closed. I knew she wasn't asleep, but the other few people who were seated nearby us must have thought that she was.

I walked her to the door of her Uncle's flat, my heart breaking a little inside because she was going. Just as she put her hand on the door, Lily turned around to face at me. 'Do you think one of Moriarty's men is watching us?'

'If they are, they get to see me kiss you good night.' I put my arm around Lily's waist and pulled her close to me and kissed her ever so carefully on the lips, like she was going to break. Lily pulled away and smiled.

'Good night, Jack. I'll see you tomorrow.' I was reluctant to go, but I knew I'd see her tomorrow morning at school.

'Yeah, we have maths first. Can't wait.'

'I'd never thought I'd hear you say that.' We both smiled and Lily went into 221, closing the door behind her. I turned and crossed over the road until I was stood opposite the flat. She had looked so beautiful tonight, and I'd only told her once. I wanted to tell her over and over again. So I took out my phone and text Lily, just in time to see her draw back the curtains in the front room. Lily looked down and took her phone out of her bag to read the text she had just received. Lily smiled and blew me a kiss. I wanted to run into her Uncle's flat and kiss her once more, but instead I laughed and began to walk down the street towards the Underground entrance.

When I was a couple of feet away from the Underground entrance, I turned around to see if I could see the flat again. I couldn't. I turned back to the station entrance when I remembered that Lily hadn't locked the door. Surely her Uncle would have wanted her to lock the door? I began to walk back to the flat when an unknown figure gripped my shirt and threw me against the nearest wall.

'Hello, Jack.' The man was wearing a black t-shirt and black pants to go with his slicked back black hair. His eyes couldn't seem to stay still, like they were flickering, giving him the impression of a mad man. He spoke with a slight Irish accent, and he had a camera slung around his neck.

'Err… hi. Who are you and how do you know me?' Keep calm, Jack. He's probably just had a few drinks down at the pub. _That doesn't excuse him for knowing your name._

'You don't recognise me? That's a shame. But I suppose it has been a while since you last saw me. You were only five years old.' The man stroked my face, then felt my hair and he smiled a little too crazily for someone who was drunk. 'I knew you very well when you were younger, but you've changed quite a bit since then. I never planned on talking to you again after I left, but then you had to go and fall in love with Sherlock Holmes' niece.

'It's your own stupid fault, but I really don't want to see you caught up in the crossfire of my battle with her Uncle. I only want the people Sherlock cares about to get hurt, and even though he does care for you slightly, I care for you too. So, take a warning, my dear, back off.' He chuckled to himself, like it was some inside joke. 'I remember saying that to Sherlock once. He's a genius. So is his niece. And even though I don't want to hurt her pretty little face, she's going to have to die sooner or later. But I'll promise you this: the longer you can stay away from her, the longer I'll let her live.'

'And how do I know that you're not just some crazy man who is lying to me?'

The man reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out something crumpled and handed it to me. 'Open it.' I did as he said to find a picture of me and Lily, laughing on our way to Becky's party. 'Believe me now?'

'Yes.' I shoved the picture in my own pocket, not taking my eyes off the man the whole time. 'Who are you?'

'You'll find out eventually. Or you could go and ask Sherlock. But, if you do, that will only make everyone around him die faster.'

'I don't get how I'm supposed to stay away from Lily. We go to the same school, and she's in most of my classes.' Good one, Jack. Start making excuses.

'Tell her something that will make her never want to speak to you again. Break her heart in two so there is no hope of her ever forgiving you, no matter how much you love each other. And then all you do is hope she gets a few more weeks to live.' The man let go of me but stepped closer to me. I couldn't smell any alcohol on him: he is clinically insane then. But he did smell faintly of flower. Strange. 'See you around. Jack.'

The man stroked my hair once more, laughed, then walked away from me. I took a few deep breaths and ran into the Underground. I scanned my ticket and ran onto the first train I saw. I didn't check to see if it was the right one, I just needed time to think about what the crazy man had said to me.

I got to school exceptionally early, somewhat glad I hadn't offered to take Lily to school this morning. I sat down in the library, a place which I had never been in before. Don't get me wrong, I love books, but me and my friends were always a bit too cool to go in to the library. I sat down at one of the computers and logged in when Miss Lane asked me what I was using it for.

I lied and told her that I was a year 11 and needed to catch up on coursework as our computer wasn't working at home. Miss Lane nodded and smiled and went back to returning books to the shelves. It wasn't an exact lie; I did have a lot of homework to catch up on. I pulled out my homework diary and began to type up my history essay, thinking about Charles II and Lily.

The bell had just rung for the end of period 5, and sadly, I had no more homework left to do and I still hadn't come up with a solution as to what I was going to do about Lily. Sighing, I logged off and left the library, taking my bag and thanking Miss Lane. I began to make my way to English, pushing slightly through the crowds of students milling around everywhere.

'Jack!' I turned around to see Miss Riley walking towards me, with a very stern look on her face. 'Where have you been all day?'

'Oh sorry, Miss. My computer broke at home and I had a lot of homework to catch up on.'

'Oh.' Miss Riley's face softened. 'Next time it happens, ask your teachers if you can be excused from your lessons instead of going AWOL for the day.' I nodded and she walked off. I carried on walking down the corridor to English, realising I was 5 minutes late.

'Sorry I'm late, Miss Carr-Michael. Miss Riley wanted to talk to me.' Miss Carr-Michael nodded and I took my seat. I could feel Lily's eyes staring at me, wanting an explanation for where I've been all day. I ignored her and took out my books and got on with the lesson, mainly focusing on what I was going to tell Lily.

I've got it! I'll tell her my friends dared me to kiss her for a fiver. It would make her feel used, and she would never want anything to do with me ever again. And it would break her heart. Excellent. If Lily asks, that is what I'm going to tell her. Then never speak to her again. I sniffed and felt a tear on my cheek. 'Are you okay, Jack?' Adam, my best friend, leaned over from his place next to me. I nodded and quickly wiped away the tear.

'I'm fine. Don't tell anyone please. I'm cool, remember?'

'Yeah, I get the picture.' We both smiled and returned to our work, me desperately trying not to think about what I was going to do to Lily.

After what seemed like a lifetime, the bell signalling the end of the school day rang, and everyone instantly began to put things in their bags, other than me, deciding to desperately finish the last sentence so I wouldn't have to face Lily. 'Homework tonight! Essay on Atticus' morals for next Thursday!' Miss Carr-Michael strode over to my desk just as the first few people began to leave the classroom, one of them being Lily. 'You weren't in tutor this morning, or this afternoon.'

'I know, Miss. Our computer crashed at home and I had a lot of homework to catch up on. I'm sorry for not coming to tell you that I was in.'

Miss Carr-Michael looked at hands that were slightly trembling. 'Is everything okay? At home?' I nodded.

'Yep, in fact, my mum's off the alcohol and she's got a job interview lined up.'

'Really? Did you manage it on your own?'

'No, Lily Holmes helped me out with it.' I swallowed hard, supressing the urge to cry in my throat.

Miss smiled and began to walk back to her desk. 'I'm glad you're friends with her. But something tells me that you both like each other a bit more than that. Hold on to her, she's not the kind of person you want to lose.' I nodded and started to walk towards the door, all the while chanting in my head _Please be gone, Lily. Please be gone, Lily._

I came out of the classroom and walked straight into her. 'Hi, Jack. Where have you been all day? Skiving in the toilets maybe? Or perhaps truanting on the school field?'

Should I say I was at home, helping my mum? No, tell her one more truthful thing before you go and break her heart with a lie. 'The library, actually. I told the librarian that I was in year 11 and I had to catch up on my course work.'

'So, were you just going to ignore me for the rest of the year then?'

I took a breath and swallowed 'Don't be stupid, for the rest of your life.' Lily took a step back from me. 'Everything was a dare, Lily. I don't love you, my friends dared me to kiss you. It's not my fault, that you have a crush on me, it just made it easier to trick you into thinking that I liked you.' I could feel tears pricking at my eyes. Get out of here, Jack! 'Have a nice life, Lily.' I walked off down the corridor, walking as fast as I possibly could. Once out of the academy, I ran to the Underground station, sat down breathing deeply, fiddling with my phone, attempting to distract myself from the tears that would imminently fall. As soon as it got to my stop, I ran back to the flat, rammed the key in the lock and led on my bed, letting the tears spill down my cheeks.

'Jack?' I don't know how long I had been led there crying, but it was long enough for me to block out sounds, like I was in limbo. 'Jack? What's wrong?' I cried even harder at the sound of my mum's concerned voice. I didn't reply, instead I just sat up and faced the direction her voice was coming from. I felt her hold me in a tight embrace for a while, wiping away my tears.

'It's Lily. I think I've lost her forever.' I began crying again; the sudden realization kicking in that I had lost the girl that I loved.

'Shhh now. It's all going to be okay.' My mum kissed my forehead and rubbed my back, wiping away my tears until I stopped crying. 'I haven't seen you cry since you were a baby. You were always my man, holding me up. Now, I know that I haven't always been a brilliant mother, but where girls are concerned, I can definitely help you there.'

My mum pulled me up from my bed and took me to the kitchen, giving me a tub of Ben and Jerry's ice cream and a spoon. She took the lid off for me and sat down opposite on the table. 'Eat.' I did as she said, taking big scoops and eating them whole, giving me brain freeze. 'Better?' I nodded and left the spoon in a now half empty ice cream tub. 'Did you kiss her?' I nodded. 'Did she slap you?' I shook my head. 'I don't see what the problem is then.'

I swallowed and took a deep breath. I couldn't tell her the truth, so I lied. 'Today, one of my friends told Lily I had only kissed her as a bet to win money. But they were lying. We never bet on it, and I kissed her because I loved her. And now she's really upset.'

'Well,' My mum took my hand from across the table. 'don't text her or go calling round at her Uncle's flat. Give her some time to think. Then tomorrow at school, tell her what really happened and apologise and make whichever friend of yours that told her about the fake bet to say sorry to Lily too.' I nodded and gave my mum a weak smile.

'Thanks, mum.'

'Now, I'll go and order pizza whilst you go and pick a DVD for us to watch. Don't pick a sad one or a romantic one. Nothing that will remind you off Lily. What about one of those funny detective ones you like?' My mum picked up the phone and rang the pizza place. I think a romantic film would remind me less of Lily than a detective film.

I had gone to school feeling better, ready to apologise to Lily. I didn't care if I spoke to her that she was going to die. If she was going to die, I wanted to be with her until someone did kill her. I sat down in English, waiting for Lily to come in and sit down. She didn't. I didn't see her all day. Did I really hurt her that much? I was about to start crying again, but Adam stopped me.

'You said it yourself yesterday, we don't cry. What's the problem, Jack? No one cries once then nearly cries again if nothing's wrong with them.'

'It's Lily. At the disco on Wednesday night, I kissed her. And then some other stuff happened, and she'll never want to speak to me again. And I don't think I could handle losing her. I know I've only known her for about 3 weeks now, but I love her so much, Adam.'

'I know, bro. I could tell you liked her alot. Hmmm… let's go.'

'What?' I looked up at Adam who had stood up from where he was sat next to me on the bench at lunch time.

'We're going to find out why Lily isn't in.' I followed Adam through the corridors, still feeling a little teary. We stopped at Madame Wilson's door.

'Why are we here?'

'Because Madame Wilson is Lily's tutor and French teacher. She'll have taken the register this morning and will know why Lily isn't in.'

'But she's not going to just tell us, is she?'

'Just tell her that you're her boyfriend and your phone isn't working so you can't text her to ask her if she's okay as you're really worried about her. Madame Wilson will fall for it: the French are hopeless romantics.' Adam knocked on the door, and someone shouted from inside the classroom.

'Entrer!'

Adam opened the door to find Madame Wilson sat down at her desk scribbling something before she looked up at us. 'Adam. Jack. What is ze problem?'

Adam nudged me, prompting me to speak. 'Is Lily Holmes in your tutor group?' Madame Wilson nodded.

'She's a lovely girl. Trés sympa. She wasn't in this morning though.'

'Could you tell me why she's not in?' Madame Wilson raised an eyebrow of uncertainty at me. 'You see, I'm her boyfriend, but my phone's not working and I'm really worried about her as we had an argument yesterday. I just want to know if she's okay.' I felt a single tear roll down my cheek, but I wiped it away quickly, but apparently not quick enough as Madame Wilson saw it and gave me a hug.

'Of course I will tell you. I would never stop ze course of true love.' Madame Wilson let me go and went back to her desk to find the register. 'It says 'ere that she has a bad… migraine or something? What's a migraine?' Madame Wilson began muttering something to herself in French as she handed me a tissue.

'Thanks, Miss.' She smiled as me and Adam left, closing the door behind us.

'That was some brilliant acting back there, bro. The tear, ingenious.'

'I really was crying.' Adam made a little 'O' shape with his mouth before patting me on the back and began to move me down the corridor again as the bell went. 'What do I do next?'

'Well, as your wingman, I'd say as soon as the bell goes for the end of sixth period, you run out of here, hop on the Underground and get to where her Uncle is living, and you apologise to her for being a complete prick.'

'Thanks, Adam.' I slapped him on the back and smiled for one of the first times today.

'Don't mention it. Really, don't. I know I'm your wingman and all, but I don't want the whole school to know that I helped you with your… problems. I know that's what best friends do, but people don't think we do that kind of thing. We have a reputation t-'

'I get the picture, Adam. I'm not going to tell anyone.'

As soon as the bell rang for the end of sixth period, I ran out of the academy and onto the Underground, swiping my ticket as I went. The Underground stations were especially busy, and I was finding it hard to get through the crowds to the next machines to get out. After what seemed like a lifetime, I got out of the Underground and stepped into the July sunlight on Baker Street. I checked my watch: three fifty-five. I ran down the street until I got to the flat, out of breath.

'Are you okay? Can I fetch you some water?' I looked up to see someone wearing an apron and holding a tray looking at me in a very concerned manner. He obviously worked at Speedys.

'No… I'll be… fine… I just… need to… catch my… breath.' He smiled and went about serving customers. About a minute later, I stood up properly and knocked on the door, hoping it wouldn't be Lily who answered.

'Jack!' Mrs Hudson smothered me in a hug, her nice old woman scent covering me. 'Come in! Are you here to see Lily?' I nodded. 'She's not in at the moment, she's gone out shopping with Molly, but they should be back soon.' That migraine must have been bad then… 'I'm sure Sherlock and John won't mind you waiting upstairs though.' We both smiled.

'Thanks, Mrs H.' I ran up the stairs to find the door to the flat open, so I could see John sat on the settee and Sherlock in his chair. They were both wearing their coats, as if they were waiting for someone to tell them that they could go outside.

'Lestr… Oh. It's you.' Sherlock awoke from his trance just in time to see me enter the flat. He stood up with his fists clenched, with a look of pure murder on his face. 'What did you do to Lily?' I opened my mouth to speak, but found that no words came out. 'Tell me!' Sherlock grabbed me by the shoulders and pinned me up against the wall next to the door.

'Woah, Sherlock! I know after our interesting revelation today that we worked out you care for Lily quite a considerable amount, but Lily cares for Jack, and would never forgive you if you hurt him, no matter what he's done.' John had rose from the settee and had put a hand on top of one of Sherlock's clenched fists.

Sherlock let go of me and John sat back down on the settee. 'She cried until six o'clock last night, you know? Kitty said it was to do with a boy. And I know that the only boy Lily is interested in is you. So, I'll ask you again, what did you do?'

I told Sherlock and John what had happened with the man and what he said, but whilst John's face was full of understanding, Sherlock's was turning almost purple with rage. 'Why didn't you just tell her that? Why didn't you just come here yesterday morning and tell me that? I could have protected her!'

'So? I love her! My way of protecting her would be too leave her alone, like the man said to! I don't want her to die! If she died, I wouldn't be able to live.' We were so busy arguing, neither of us had noticed the sound of the front door opening and closing, and the faint talking of two females ascending the stairs.

Halfway through a snide remark, Sherlock turned to face the two people stood on the doorway. Out of the corner of my eye I could see they were both female. One I didn't know. The other was Lily.


	10. Chapter 10

Please can my readers read my friend **DarkeFairie**'s fan fiction: **The Journey of the Movement.**

CHAPTER 10-

'You'll be fine. Here's seventy pounds, Lily. I have no idea what price female clothes are, so just take that. I may not be back tonight, or I may go out again, it depends how good this lead we have is. Have a nice time, and like John said, try and smile, for me?' After I had handed Lily a wad of notes, she nodded and hugged me. The only person I'd ever hugged before was John, but I loved Lily just as equally. I held her tightly, never wanting to let go of her. Suddenly, I felt compelled to kiss her on top of her head, like I had seen my sister do so many times to her son when he was upset. 'I'll see you later, Lily.' I slowly let go of Lily and she smiled, and me and John ran down the stairs and out onto the street, hailing a cab.

'So, where are we off to then?' John asked as we climbed in.

'The head of my network, Carter, said he found a place near the Vauxhall arches. He said it was like a shrine to me. I wasn't sure at first if it was Moriarty's doing, but I thought we may as well go and have a look at it as I'm so bored. And I quite like our living room wall just the way it is.' John laughed quietly. 'How are you?'

The question lingered in the air for a moment before John answered. 'I have good days and bad days, this is one of the good ones though I think. Just like old times. I'm getting better. I don't need my stick to walk anymore.' We both smiled.

'John, I could never work it out before, but, how come you never moved in with Sarah?' John turned to look at me in the cab.

'In terms of living conditions, the only people I had been used to living with normally were you and Mrs Hudson. You were gone, and living with Mrs Hudson meant living at Baker Street, and I couldn't do that. I moved into my own flat, only staying overnight at Sarah's occasionally.' John took a deep breath before continuing. 'Even though you, according to Lily, stalked me, you never saw inside my flat. I tried to make it so it would never remind me of you. I left all of my possessions that reminded me of you at 221B, which was a lot of stuff. I even left my black and white stripy jumper and my cord jumper at the flat because they reminded me of you.

'When I moved out, I only had one box and one bag. I had to arrange everything in my flat so it wouldn't remind me of 221B. The rooms couldn't be in the same order, the furniture couldn't be in the same layout. I didn't have a shower in the morning anymore, I had to have one before I went to bed. Do you realise the damage you have done, Sherlock?' John voice had rose in volume, but not loud enough to be a shout. I could tell he was upset.

'Three things. One: I'm sorry. Two: Are you glad you've got that out now? And three: I wish I'd never asked if you why you didn't move in with Sarah.' I put a hand on John's shoulder reassuringly, and he breathed deeply.

'It's okay, Sherlock. I shouldn't have said it. I haven't made an appointment with my therapist in a while.'

'I'll make you one when we get home.' I smiled at John, and he nodded. I could tell he had tears in his eyes, but he wasn't about to let them fall. I paid the cab driver and we got out, just as we had done many months before on the search for the golem. 'Carter!'

'Here, Mr Holmes, Dr Watson.' Carter, the head of my homeless network appeared from out of the shadows, looking as scruffy as ever.

'You need a new coat. I'll buy you one after for finding this place.'

'I'd rather have it after the summer, Sir. I hear from the newspapers that this winter is going to be one of the coldest.' I nodded in agreement.

'Well I can't have the head of my network getting frost bite. Drop by when you need it. Now, where is this place?'

'Through here, Sir.' We began to follow Carter through the arches and tunnels and John spoke to me in a whisper.

'Why does he feel the need to call you Sir?'

'Because, he ran away from a boarding school. Just because he's homeless doesn't mean he doesn't have manners. Honestly, John.' I rolled my head and he laughed. I loved it when he laughed. I loved when I made anyone laugh. Apart from Anderson. He'll laugh at anything you say.

'Here we are, Sir. You'll have to crawl though.' Carter had led us to a small house next to the Vauxhall Arches, but all of the windows and doors in the house had been bricked up apart from the basement window, which luckily was bigger than most basement windows. 'I did some back ground research on the house, and the homeless people living around here says that a man uses it frequently to hide things in here, but he threatens the people that live around here to never go in.'

'Thank you, Carter. We'll take it from here.' Carter half bowed to me and ran off, leaving me and John stood in the rain. 'Come on, John.' We both got on the floor and slipped through the window with ease, turning on our torches.

'He really needs to stop treating you like a King.'

'Ha, it's where I got my idea for my mind palace in the first place.'

John shook his head and shone his torch around the room. 'There's nothing in here, let's try the next room.' I nodded and followed John up the basement stairs into the living room. 'Oh my…' Me and John stood at the top of stairs, side by side, staring into the living room of the house. It had black and white wallpaper, like the type in our flat. But you could barely see it, due to the pictures and newspaper articles that covered it. We slowly approached the longest wall, our jaws almost touching the floor at the sight that lay in front of us.

There pictures were of us in cabs, at the hospital, in the flat and at Scotland Yard. There was even a picture of me and John the first time we met. There was numerous newspaper articles pinned up around the room, including the ones just after my suicide. I couldn't believe it. A shrine, dedicated to me and John and everything that our lives stood for. There were also pictures of Molly, Mycroft, Lestrade, Mrs Hudson, Anderson, Donovan, Angelo, Irene and Harriet up too.

'Look at this, Sherlock.' John had moved onto to the other end of the wall and I shone my torch on what he was looking at. 'Going on how old the pictures look, these ones are pretty recent.' John had found a cluster of photos of Lily and Jack, one of them was of them kissing outside the flat. I felt a sudden urge to rip it off the wall in revenge for making her cry until six o'clock, but then whoever owned this shrine would have known we were here.

'I'm starting to get this now…' I turned to look at John who was holding up a photo of a young Lily, Mycroft and her mother. I knew what was coming.

'I bet you told Lily that she got her hair colour and style of her mum. And Lily believes it because they have the same colour hair and they both have curly hair. In this picture, Lily's mum has straight hair. Lily only has one picture of her mum. And her mum has curly hair in the photo. Those curls aren't natural though, are they?'

'John-'

John held up a hand. 'Your hair's naturally curly though, right Sherlock?' I licked my lips, hoping that no one would ever find out. 'Does Lily know?'

'No. How would she ever know that I'm her father? She's good at deducing, but not that good.' I sat down on the floor, my head in my hands, thinking what would become of my brother and the scandal that had befallen upon my family.

John sat opposite me, putting the picture in front of me. 'How did it happen?'

I took a deep breath. Should I tell John? Yes, it's only right to. He hasn't seen me for a year, and I at least owe it to him to tell him one of my darkest secrets. 'One night, 9 months before Lily was born, Dawn, Lily's mother, came around to my flat in floods of tears. She had said that Mycroft had had an argument with her, and she needed to get out of the house for a while. I invited her in, and gave her some alcohol, hoping she would forget about her troubles. I began drinking with her and… well, you know what alcohol does.' I paused and John put a hand on my shoulder. 'A few weeks later, she told me she was pregnant. We both knew it wasn't Mycroft's. Dawn eventually told everybody, all of them believing it was Mycroft's; apart from me, her and him.

'Shortly after Lily was born, Dawn was on her way around to my flat with Lily in a cab. The taxi crashed, killing Dawn and the driver. Lily was the only one who survived. She was supposed to die.'

'No one was meant to die, Sherlock.' John's tone had changed from verging on angry to full of sympathy, understanding and sadness.

'I don't mean it like that. Mycroft arranged for the cab to crash. To kill Dawn and Lily, so he wouldn't have to face up to the fact that I had slept with his wife.' John's mouth had opened in disbelief.

'It would certainly explain a lot. The way you act around Lily. The way you and Mycroft act around each other. I feel sorry for Jack…' I smiled slightly.

'Moriarty got me and Mycroft wrong. I'm the iceman: he's the virgin.' John nodded and we got up and shakily went back to inspecting the room thoroughly, also checking the other rooms in the house before we left.

It took longer than expected. We spent until 3 o'clock searching the house from top to bottom, making sure there was nothing in the other rooms. We eventually left, John being careful of speaking to me about certain subjects, knowing I was still unsure of telling him about being Lily's dad.

We arrived back at the flat, hoping to find Lily and Molly, but Mrs Hudson said they hadn't come back yet. 'I suppose you'll want to type something up on your blog?'

'There's not much to type. You won't even tell me how you faked your death; neither will Molly.'

'I can't yet. I may need…'

'You may need to what? Do it again?' John briefly looked away before turning back to me.

I paused and gave John a solemn look. 'If Moriarty comes after us again. However, you will probably know that I am not dead this time. So you will probably have to come with me.' He smiled.

'We should probably take everyone else too. Find a deserted island. Live happily ever after.'

I raised my eyebrows at John. 'Seriously?'

'Yeah, why not? Moriarty would never find us.' We both laughed. 'I'm going to get some food and milk from downstairs: I still need to go shopping.'

'I'll go with you tomorrow.'

It was John's turn to raise his eyebrows at me. 'You're going to come shopping with me?'

'Yes. You have terrible trouble with the self-service machines.' We both laughed and watched the Jeremy Kyle show, wondering how people got themselves into these messes. 'Please tell me you never considered going on this show with me.'

'Don't worry; you'd end up getting thrown off by the security within two minutes.'

'You know me too well.' I answered my phone as it began to ring in my pocket. 'Lestrade?'

"Hi, Sherlock. We were out investigating on a case today and-"

'And you need our help?' I smiled and John looked eager.

"No, but I do have something that may interest you. I'll be around in about fifteen minutes to take you there."

'Just tell us where it is, Lestrade!'

"No, my Super-Intendant says I have to pick you up and take you there after what happened on the previous cases. He hasn't been fully converted on the fact that you're not a fraud yet. Just sit in the flat with your coats on or something. I'll see you soon. Bye."

'Goodbye, Lestrade.'

'What did he want?'

I sighed. 'He's coming around here in about fifteen minutes to take us there, as Lestrade's boss doesn't believe we can handle a case on our own yet.' I growled slightly. 'He said to sit here with our coats on waiting for him.'

'Well, at least it's something to do.'

'I still don't understand why you call Greg Lestrade all of the time. And when you did find out his first name, it was like some sort of shock to you. Next, you'll be wondering what our housekeeper's first name is.'

'I know her first name, John.'

'What? Really?'

'Yeah. It's Mrs.' John threw a cushion at me and we watched the end of Jeremy Kyle, sighing miserably as it ended at five minutes to four. I drummed my fingers impatiently on the side of my chair. What is taking Lestrade so long? And where are Lily and Molly? I hope Lily's feeling better. I began thinking about other things as the front door made a noise and I could hear Mrs Hudson's voice faintly.

'Lestr… Oh. It's you.' Someone ran up the stairs, me and John both hoping it was Lestrade, but instead it was Jack: the boy who broke my daughter's heart. I stood up with my fists clenched, walking over to where Jack was stood in the doorway. What did you do to Lily?' He began to open and close his mouth like he was a goldfish and had no idea what was happening. 'Tell me!' Unknowingly, I grabbed Jack by the shoulders and pinned him up against the wall next to the door.

'Woah, Sherlock! I know after our interesting revelation today that we worked out you care for Lily quite a considerable amount, but Lily cares for Jack, and would never forgive you if you hurt him, no matter what he's done.' John had got up from the settee and had put one of his hands on top of one of my fists that had Jack pinned to the wall.

Reluctantly, I let go of Jack and John sat back down on the settee. 'She cried until six o'clock last night, you know? Kitty said it was to do with a boy. And I know that the only boy Lily is interested in is you. So, I'll ask you again, what did you do?'

Jack began telling us some story about a man who had threatened him after the disco. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see John's face full of understanding, but I knew the expression I held on my face was nothing like his. 'Why didn't you just tell her that? Why didn't you just come here yesterday morning and tell me that? I could have protected her!'

Jack began to shout at me, something not many people have done before. 'So? I love her! My way of protecting her would be too leave her alone, like the man said to! I don't want her to die! If she died, I wouldn't be able to live.' We began to argue, stepping forward with everything we said so we were a few mere centimetres from each other now.

'You're a-'

I was about to call Jack a name, but I realised that Molly was stood in the doorway with my daughter, both of them looking shell shocked at the scene in front of them.


	11. Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11-

'Lily, go upstairs.' John rose from the settee and stood in front of me, probably hoping that Lily hadn't seen me.

'John…' I heard Lily's sweet voice that had grown up since I first met her. It was so beautiful. I felt tears well up in my eyes.

'You really need to go upstairs. You honestly don't want or need to hear this. Molly-'

'Sorry everyone.' All of a sudden, Lestrade had pushed Molly and Lily aside and stood in between Sherlock and me, facing Lily's Uncle. 'After you left that place your network found for you, we investigated it. Looks like you missed a clue.' Lestrade took a picture out of his pocket and Sherlock looked at it intently.

'Right, everyone, let's go.' John stepped forward away from me and took hold of the girl's shopping bags and put them on the settee and began to usher them upstairs. I quickly caught sight of Lily's long, flowing, curly brown hair which I so longed to touch. _You can never do that again. _'They're coming too, John. And you as well, Jack.' Sherlock took my school bag off me and placed next to the shopping bags on the settee. We all ran down the stairs, the six of us nearly tripping over each other. The noise we made caused Mrs Hudson to come out of her kitchen and into the hallway, just in time to see us all stumble out through the front door and close the door behind us.

We all got in a cab, with Lestrade in the front as he was a police officer. Sherlock, Lily and John sat along the back with me sat opposite Sherlock and Molly across from John. I briefly glanced across at Lily who had been staring at me. She instantly looked down at her knees when she saw me looking back, and I stared out of the window until we got out at some abandoned warehouse.

'Greg, what clue was it that we missed?'

'Underneath the photos of Lily and Jack,' I winced slightly on hearing our names together. 'there was some yellow spray paint on the wall, indicating to this warehouse.' We all looked up at the looming building. Cold wind swept past us all and I shivered, having left my blazer in my bag at the flat and was only wearing my thin school shirt. 'Me and my team were going to come and investigate it by ourselves, but we decided that you'd probably want to take a look before they did.'

'Wow, you're actually getting better at your job, Lestrade. Come on.' Lestrade gave us all a small torch each and we went into the warehouse, pulling aside a big sheet of corrugated metal to gain entry.

'Torches on everyone.' We did as Lestrade said and found ourselves in a dark, narrow corridor, with several doors down it.

'Me and John will take the first door, Lestrade and Molly; you'll have the second door, and Lily and Jack… no, actua-'

'We'll be fine, Uncle.' I turned to look at Lily in the light of our torches and saw how unbelievably fragile she looked. What have I done to her? Sherlock thought for a couple of seconds before continuing.

'Lily and Jack, you'll take the last door.' We dispersed and I followed Lily to the final door on the corridor. Lily tried the door, but it was stuck. She looked around for her Uncle, but he had already disappeared.

'Can you try and break down the door, Jack?' Lily didn't look at me as she said it, but her voice sounded like she was about to cry.

'Sure, hold my torch.' I passed Lily my torch and shoved my shoulder into the door hard. I broke down the door. I also managed to break Lily out in a fit of giggles as I had fallen on the floor. 'It's not that funny, Lily.' I got up a brushed myself down, picking up the door and leaning it against the wall outside the room.

'You didn't see it.' She handed me back my torch and began to search the right side of the room. 'Search the other side.' I did as she said and came across a photo of Sherlock holding a baby in a filing cabinet drawer.

'Lily…' Lily turned around and stood next to me. 'Who's the baby?'

'I think it might be me. Just put it in your pocket for now.' We carried on searching the room, coming across nothing mildly suspicious, not unless you count an ashtray as suspicious. We stood outside of the room with Molly and Lestrade, waiting for Sherlock and John. 'Did you two find anything?'

'We found a picture of Sherlock playing with a toddler.' Lestrade reached into his jacket pocket. 'Is that you, Lily?'

Lily took the photo off Lestrade and inspected it closely. 'Probably. I don't know anyone else as young as me that Sherlock would have known. Although, my Aunty has a son, but he's a few years older than me. And the toddler in this picture is wearing a pink dress, so unless I have a sister I don't know about…' Lily trailed off, still looking at the photo.

'We found this photo.' I handed Molly the photo I had found.

'I've never seen Sherlock smile so much. He looks like a proud Uncle.' Lestrade chuckled slightly just as Sherlock and John emerged from their room carrying a sugar pink box.

'What's in there, Uncle?'

'Photos of you mainly. There are some others of a baby boy.'

'Wouldn't that be Ryan?'

Sherlock briefly looked up at Lily stood next to me and his lip curled briefly before continuing. 'No, the baby in the photo has black hair. Your cousin was bold when he was born. I'll have to run checks on them in the lab. What did everyone else find?' We handed over the two photos to Sherlock and he put them in the box. 'We'll leave the box here: it's too heavy to carry it around with us. Let's go.'

We carried on moving through the warehouse, finding nothing but rats, dirt and neglected machinery. 'Ouch!' We all turned to see Molly flat on the floor writhing in pain. John rushed over to her and we all followed suite.

'What have you done, Molly? John, check her over.'

'I tripped over that piece of metal over there. It's nothing, really. I'll be fi- ouch, John!'

John looked up at Sherlock through the dim torch light. 'She's twisted her ankle. She won't be able to walk any further. Shall we go?'

'No, I think we're almost done here.' Sherlock thought for a moment. 'Lestrade, you'll have to help her back to the entrance. We'll carry on. Call me if you anything happens.' Lestrade nodded and lifted Molly up, putting her arm around his shoulder. We watched them walk slowly out of the room before continuing to investigate. A few minutes later, Sherlock's phone started ringing.

We all stopped looking around and faced him as he answered it. 'Lestrade? What is it?' Sherlock's grip on his phone became tighter as the police officer spoke, and his expression changed from that of neutral, to extremely concerned. 'We'll be there soon. Get Molly and yourself outside.' Sherlock hung up and he began to walk back the way we came.

'Sherlock? What is it?' John walked over to Sherlock, his face holding distress.

'When they got back to the entrance, the box with the photos in had gone. Above where we left it, there was a message.' Sherlock took a deep breath. '"I'm back to finish the fairy tale." There's only one other person than me who would know the significance of that.'

'Moriarty…' John whispered it, like it was some sort of swear word. 'Let's run.' We set off, hearts pounding, me and Lily and good few metres behind Sherlock and John.

All of a sudden, Lily gasped from behind me. 'Jack…' I turned and shone my torch on Lily, showing that a thin strand of metal sticking out from the wall, had somehow managed to latch itself into Lily's side. 'It hurts, Jack.'

I nodded. 'Do you want me to get your Uncl-'

'Just get it out please.' A single tear rolled down Lily's cheek, and I did as she asked, not wanting her to hurt any more than I had purposely made her to. I put my hand on Lily's side, near the wire, and slowly pulled her away from it. Her t-shirt now had a thin hole in it. It was relatively small, but the fact that it was lined with blood against her white t-shirt made it visible to anyone; especially Sherlock.

'Button up your coat.' Lily did as I said and I grabbed her by the hand, pulling her along after me until we appeared in the dim moonlight outside of the warehouse with everyone else, out of breath and still holding hands. Sherlock cast me a warning glance and I let go of Lily's hand immediately.

'I told Donovan to get a cab sent here.' We all nodded as a cab pulled up in the dirt track next to the warehouse.

'Someone by the name of Donovan told me to drive down here to pick up six people. Was she joking?'

'Afraid not.' Lestrade took out his I.D from his pocket and showed it to the confused cab driver. 'Detective Inspector Gregory Lestrade of Scotland Yard. My privileges include me riding in the front with you and getting a free ride here for my colleagues.' The cab driver eyed us all up suspiciously.

'I'm pretty sure two of them are teenagers.'

'Serial killers tend to open to teenagers more than adults. Can we get in now?' The cab driver thought for a moment before nodding. He probably had worked out that me and Lily didn't work for the police, and probably doubted Sherlock's, John's and Molly's employment there too. We all got in, sat in the same places as last time. '221B Baker Street, please. Be fast as you can.'

'Yes, Sir.'

We got back to Baker Street with Lily managing to keep a straight face, despite all of the pain that she was in. Surely a thin, wiry piece of metal couldn't have hurt that much, could it? I was still contemplating it when Lily quietly asked me to go upstairs with her when we were sat in the living room, with everyone else fussing over Molly's ankle in the kitchen.

'Sure.' Lily smiled nervously and she took her shopping bags into her room with her. 'Turn around.' I did as Lily said, wondering what she was doing. 'Okay.' I turned back around to face her to see that she had changed t-shirts.

'Do you want me to go and get John to come and take a look at that cut for you?'

'No, it's fine. I'll put a plaster on it after.' Lily slowly sat down on the floor, and I joined her, but sat opposite her instead of next to her.

'I didn't know such a thin piece of metal could hurt so much.'

'It was quite sharp and jagged.' I nodded my head.

'Well, the moral of the story is not to go in creepy warehouses at night.' Lily smiled slightly and looked down at the floor. 'Right, I'm just going to say it to stop the awkwardness between us.' Lily looked up at me once more. 'There was no bet. I made it up. The truth is that after I dropped you off after the disco, some creepy guy told me that you and all of Sherlock's friends were going to die if I didn't stay away from you. And I love you too much to see you die. I love you too much to see you get hurt, but I couldn't just randomly tell you to leave me alone, so I needed to make an excuse. I doesn't change the way I feel about you. I still love you.' I slowly reached up and put a hand on Lily's cheek, and she smiled properly.

'Who was the creepy man?'

'I don't know. He said Sherlock would know, so I'll go and ask him after. Am I forgiven?' Lily smiled and leaned forward and kissed me. I kissed her back, but after a while, I seemed to be the only doing anything. Lily was just sat there, doing nothing. It felt like I was kissing… a dead body. I pulled away from Lily to find that she had her eyes closed and she was barely breathing. 'Lily?' Not knowing what to do, I hit her arm, trying to get her to come back.

She mumbled slightly then collapsed into my chest. What happened to her? I laid her down on the floor and slowly lifted up the bottom of her t-shirt to look at her cut. Oh god. The area around the cut had turned black. I quickly picked Lily up and ran down the stairs with her. 'John! John!'

'Jack? What is it?' John came out of the kitchen and stood by the living room doorway. He was quite happy until he saw Lily limp and lifeless in my arms.

'What the hell have you done to her?' Sherlock had stormed out of the kitchen just in time to see me lay Lily down on the settee.

'Nothing, I swear, Sherlock! When we were running out of the warehouse, Lily cut herself on some metal at the warehouse, and then upstairs she collapsed on me, and I thought it might have something to do with the cut it made. So, I lifted up her t-shirt and well…' I gestured to Lily on the settee, who was now in John's care. Sherlock calmed down and nodded.

'Sherlock, go and get a swab stick and petri dish; you need to identify which poison this is.'

'Poison?' We both shouted, equally as worried for Lily's wellbeing.

'Yes, poison. Hurry up! We don't know how long we've got.' Sherlock ran in to the kitchen and grabbed what he needed, taking some of the blue substance from Lily's open cut. He began to look at it under his microscope, occasionally consulting Molly for her opinion and writing down its characteristics. After what seemed like a lifetime, Sherlock slammed his hands down on the kitchen table.

'It's blatolsis, John!'

'Oh, brilliant…'

'Is that a good poison?' I looked up from where I was sat on the floor next to Lily on the settee.

Sherlock turned to look at me, snapping his voice at every syllable he said to me. 'Evidentially Jack, no poison is good. But, it's not the worst poison to have. We have about an hour and a half before she dies.'

'And that's an enormous amount of time.' Sherlock got up from the chair in the kitchen to argue with me, but John stood in between us.

'None of this is helping Lily, you two!' I looked at John and nodded, as did Sherlock. 'Now, what do we need to cure her?'

Molly quickly tapped something into Sherlock's laptop and moved her fingers over the track pad several times. 'It says here that in the syringe there needs to be equal amounts of water, calpol, a dead man's blood and…' Molly trailed off, her face turning whiter than the light emitting from the computer screen.

'And what?'

Molly didn't answer, so Lestrade looked over her shoulder at the screen. 'Belladonna.' Great. We're going to cure one poison with another. 'The belladonna must be in liquidised form. Only half of the people given this treatment survive, and it must be administered before the black area reaches the victim's heart or… it is very unlikely that the victim will survive.'

A deadly silence issued throughout 221B. Lily could die. I felt my brain go numb and began to get dizzy. A life without Lily. I know I hadn't known her long, but I know I couldn't live without her. If she dies… I'm doing an impression of Sherlock, but I'm doing it for real this time. Not to come back to no one who loves me a year later.

John was the first to snap back into reality. 'Right, well. Molly, ring Mike and tell him to bring a bag of a dead man's blood from the morgue here right now. I don't care what he's doing, tell him to get here right now. Sherlock, go downstairs and fetch some calpol from Mrs Hudson; she's bound to have some. We have water, we have a syringe… but the belladonna…'

'I know where there's belladonna.' We all turned to Lestrade.

'Really?'

'Yeah, there's this creepy guy at work who I know grows it at home.' We all raised an eyebrow slightly. 'Chill, we checked he hadn't had any previous convictions before employing him; it's not like we employed a mass murderer or something…' Lestrade trailed off.

'Well, go and get some belladonna then!' Sherlock screamed at Lestrade and he ran down the stairs and out of the front door. 'I'll go and get the calpol then.'

After an hour, we had measured out the correct amounts for the water, blood and calpol, but Lestrade and the belladonna was still missing. 'She's only got half an hour left before the black reaches her heart.' Sherlock was pacing up and down the flat. John had told me I wasn't allowed to hold Lily's hand anymore as her skin may have turned poisonous. I sighed heavily, and watched her breath, her eyelids occasionally fluttering slightly.

'Right, I'm ringing Lestrade.' Sherlock went out into the hallway and John followed him, leaving me in the living room with Lily, and Molly quietly surfing the internet in the kitchen.

'Lily, I don't know if you can hear me, but I just wanted to tell you that I love you. I know what I told you about the bet was stupid, I should have just told you the truth. I'm really sorry for hurting you the way I did, and I hope that you could find it somewhere in your heart to forgive me. You probably don't care if I live or die after making you cry for two and half hours, but I'll tell you this: if you die because of this poison, I'm going to kill whoever put that poison in the warehouse, then I'll jump of St. Barts and join you in heaven. I love you.' Slowly, not caring if her skin was poisoned, I sat up and kissed her forehead.

'I love you too… Jack…' It was barely a whisper, but it was loud enough for me to know that I wasn't imagining it. Her eyes slowly flickered open to look at me, and she weakly smiled before closing them again. 'I don't have long… left… Tell my Uncle that… I love… him.' Lily fell unconscious just as her Uncle started shouting.

'I don't care if he's not in his house! Break down the bloody door! We've only got half an hour left!' John began to quietly console Sherlock when Molly spoke up.

'You're a really sweet teenage boy, you know that?'

I turned to look at her. 'I wouldn't have said so personally. What makes you think that?'

'You'd do anything to save Lily. And you said it yourself, you've only known her three weeks. And I know from what Sherlock's said about you when he comes into the morgue that you're supposed to be some bad boy at school, but you care deeply for your mother who's a recovering alcoholic. You're a sweet teenage boy: there's not many of those around.' We both smiled just as Sherlock and John came back into the living room, Sherlock looking as angry as ever.

'Lily said that she loves you.'

'She was awake?'

'Only for about ten seconds.'

Sherlock came to sit on the floor with me next to Lily. 'What else did she say?'

'She said she loves me, she loves you, and that she doesn't have long left.' Sherlock raised his eyebrow at me in an Am-I-supposed-to-believe-that kind of way.

'He's telling the truth Sherlock.' Molly spoke softly from her position in the kitchen and hobbled slightly into the living room with the laptop and sat in Sherlock's chair. 'What did Greg say?'

Sherlock sighed deeply. 'He could be a while yet. Lily doesn't have long left.' He reached out a hand and took a couple of strands of hair away from Lily's face. No one spoke for a while, and I had grown so accustomed to the silence, I hadn't known that Sherlock had silently begun to cry. John had noticed too, and he pulled Sherlock into a hug. Not knowing what to do, I turned to watch Lily breath quietly. 'She only has five minutes left, John…'

'I know, I know.'

'And she never knew.' John pulled away from Sherlock.

'Tell her now then.' I looked at Molly and she shrugged her shoulders at me. John got up and pulled me with him, so we were well out of the way of Sherlock and Lily. Sherlock took Lily's small, delicate hand in his large, pale one.

'Lily, you have always been told that Mycroft is your father, but you're so clever that you've probably wondered why he kept you locked away from the world. It's because he doesn't have a daughter. I'm your father, and I know that you probably can't hear me, but I love you. I never loved your mother, we were just friends and it was a drunken mistake that we had intercourse that night, but you were not a mistake, and you definitely were never a disgrace to the Holmes family. You are the best thing ever to happen to the Holmes family.'

'Wow, and I thought you were a virgin, Sherlock.' We all turned to look at Lestrade stood in the doorway. We had all been so caught up in the moment that none of us had noticed him come in. 'I've got the belladonna!'

'Why didn't you say so earlier, you bloody idiot? She only has about three minutes before the black gets to her heart!' Sherlock leaped up and dragged Lestrade into the kitchen, John following quickly behind. Within a matter of seconds, John came back into the living room, holding the life-saving syringe. We all gathered around the settee to watch.

'Guys, I need to find a vein first. Just back off.' We did as he said and John injected the solution into Lily's arm. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion then. Lily seemed to stop breathing, then it begun to speed up. She started to move her head violently, and Molly began to read off from the laptop.

'After the antidote has been administrated successfully, the victim will begin to fit. You must hold them down and talk to them in a calming voice. This should last for a few minutes. After, the cut should be stitched up and the victim must be put to sleep with anaesthetic so the poison can be washed out of the blood stream. Having being poisoned with this now, the victim will be aware of an increased immunity to other poisons that have the same strength as blatolsis.'

Me, Sherlock, John and Lestrade pinned Lily down on the settee as she had a fit; and sure enough, after several minutes, Lily led still and her breathing returned to normal. Sherlock breathed a sigh of relief and went into the kitchen with John to get some water, and Lestrade went out into the hallway to make a few phone calls to get the unused warehouse closed down properly.

'Jack… what happened?' Lily murmured softly as her eyes flickered open and she slowly turned her head to look at me.

'Victims may also suffer memory loss from the moment the poison entered their blood stream…'

'We were at the warehouse, and Lestrade rang telling us we had to get out of there, so we started running, and you got stabbed by this piece of metal which had poison on it. Then, when we got back we were sat in your bedroom and I was apologising to you for acting like an idiot the other day, then you kind of went all floppy. So, I brought you down here and Sherlock worked out what you had been poisoned with and he cured you. You feel okay, right?' Lily nodded and smiled weakly.

'Just a little tired, that's all.'

'Victims may also experience tiredness as the poison has drained their ener-'

'Will you please stop reading out the contents of Google, Molly?' Sherlock came through from the kitchen and sat down next to me. He stroked the side of Lily's face and she smiled again. 'How much do you remember?'

'I remember running through the warehouse behind Jack, then I got stabbed, so Jack helped me and we ran outside. I know we were in a cab… but I don't remember that much to be honest after that. I know you said something about Mycroft and my mother… I don't know, I couldn't work out what you said.'

I glanced at Sherlock, wondering what he was going to tell her, but he carried on looking at Lily. 'Oh, I was just saying how much Mycroft would miss you if you died, but then again, you would be able to live with your mother in heaven.'

'Well, the heaven bit isn't true. You don't believe in heaven.' Sherlock laughed.

'No, fair point. John needs to stich up your cut then he needs to out you to sleep, okay?' Lily nodded as we both got up and John replaced us and began to stich up the gash in Lily's side.

'The anaesthetic that I give you will let you sleep until around one o'clock tomorrow, and you'll wake up really hungry and thirsty, so, don't give me and Sherlock a hard time, okay?' Lily nodded and John injected the anaesthetic into her arm.

'Can someone help me upstairs? I don't want to sleep on the settee.' Before Sherlock had a chance to even move, I had scooped Lily up and was carrying her up the stairs to her bedroom, her head already lolling against my chest, telling me she was already falling asleep.

I laid her in her bed, pulling the covers over her. 'Do you remember my apology?'

'Vaguely. I still forgive you though. I love you.'

'I love you too, Lily.' I leaned down and kissed her forehead and sat on the floor next to her bed.

'Will you be here when I wake up?'

'Do you want me to be?' Lily nodded. 'I'll be here when you wake up then. If your Uncle will let me.' Lily smirked and closed her eyes. After a few minutes, I spoke again. 'Lily?' No reply: she's asleep.

'What did this man look like then?' I turned around to see Sherlock leaning on the door frame. I opened my mouth, unsure of what to say, but he spoke before I did. 'The man who threatened you on the night of the disco.'

'He was dressed all in black with a camera around his neck. He had slicked back black hair and he kind of had a crazy look in his eyes.'

'What did he sound like?'

'He sounded a little Irish.' Sherlock sighed and joined me on the floor, taking his phone out of his pocket.

'Did he look like this?' Sherlock held up a picture of the same man I had seen that night, except he was wearing different clothes. I nodded and Sherlock's facial expression drooped a considerable amount. 'Moriarty is back.'

'That was Moriarty? The guy who got you to fake your death? The guy Becky works for?' Sherlock nodded.

'What did he smell of?'

'Ermmm… flowers I think. And this is the picture he gave to me.' I took the crumpled photo of me and Lily out of my trouser pocket and passed it to Sherlock. 'Why did you want to know what he smelt like?'

'The morning after the disco, I came to wake Lily up, but I smelt something underlying her own scent in her bedroom. It smelt like flowers, but Lily smells like citrus fruits and apples. You said that you don't think Lily locked the door. I think Moriarty was in her room, and then he locked the front door on the way out.'

'Are you going to go after Moriarty then?'

'I believe I have to. My dau- niece is in danger.'

'So, you're not going to tell Lily about that then?' Sherlock shook his head and gazed at Lily sleeping soundly.

'I can't. It was cause her too much pain I think. She's always believed that her father never loved her. Maybe she's right. I'm a terrible father for making her live with Mycroft. He's pure evil.'

'I could tell her, if you liked? She might take it better from me.'

'No, I believe I should do it.' Sherlock paused and looked at me, and before I knew it, he had hugged me. 'Thank you.'

'What for?'

'You've looked after Lily for me. I don't know anyone, except perhaps John, who would give up a relationship to save the one that they love.' I shrugged. 'You can stay here until Lily wakes up.'

'Thank you, Sherlock.'

**A/N: **_I know blatolsis isn't a real poison, but I couldn't find a poison on the internet that would turn your skin black, so I just made one up._


	12. Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12-

'Sherlock, I need to go out and get the shopping. I know you said that you'd come with me, but I understand if you want to wait until Lily wakes up.' I was stood in the doorway to Lily's room, looking at Sherlock and Jack intently watching Lily sleep, as if her face held the answer to the point of life.

'No, I'll go with you. I promised, didn't I? Sherlock reluctantly got up and went downstairs to out his coat on.

'John, I'd really appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone how you found me and Sherlock this morning.'

'Oh, I won't Jack. As sweet as it was, I won't.'

I had woken up this morning and gone into Lily's room, wanting to know if either of them wanted any food as they had both refused to leave Lily's side unless they were about to wet their pants and needed the toilet. I expected to find them exhausted from sleep, but instead, I found Sherlock sat against the wall with Jack in his lap, both of them contently asleep. I, of course, woke them up, but not before taking a picture of them for future blackmail which they don't need to know about until necessary.

'Thanks, John.' We smiled as Sherlock came back upstairs ready to go.

'Jack, as soon as she wakes up text me and I'll ring you back and put Lily on the phone straight away. She'll want some food, and Mrs Hudson says she'll make some for Lily. When she's full, make her take a shower, but tell her to be careful around her cut. I think that's it. Text me if anything else happens.' Jack nodded and we left the flat and climbed into a cab, telling the driver to take us to whichever supermarket was the nearest.

'Do you think Lily will want something special cooking for her tea tonight? I mean, she's been through a lot, as has Jack and you. And me whilst we're at it.'

Sherlock stopped pushing the trolley and looked at me. 'How have you been through a lot?'

'Well, my flat mate and best friend performed the greatest miracle known to man, then his niece comes to stay with us, producing an amount of foreign problems to both of us, then you go and reveal that she's really your daughter. Then I had to make sure I injected enough of the antidote in her to save her. All of that in three weeks. I'd say I'd been through a lot.' Sherlock nodded and he carried on pushing the trolley. 'So, as I was saying, does Lily want something special cooking for her tea tonight?'

'Just get pepperoni pizza, John.' I put a jar of jam in the trolley and stared at him.

'There must be something other than pizza that she really likes.'

Sherlock paused for a second before replying. 'Spanish omelette.'

'Can you make it?'

'Yes. When I used to visit her, Mycroft would let me make it for her. Then the visits stopped.' Sherlock stopped pushing the trolley. 'I don't know if she's had it since my last visit when she was about four. I don't know if she'll still like it.'

'It's the thought that counts, Sherlock.'

He nodded and we carried on shopping and after another few minutes, Sherlock's phone buzzed and he took it out of his pocket and smiled. 'Lily's up.' Sherlock dialled Jack's number and put if on loud speaker for both of us to hear. 'Jack, how's Lily?'

"She is so unbelievably cranky! She wouldn't shut up about how hungry she was so I've come down stairs to get her some food. Don't worry, Molly came around just after you left and is trying to calmly talk to Lily. I don't think it's working though. Oh, thanks, Mrs H. Right I'm going back upstairs now and I'll put Lily on the phone as soon as I get to her bedroom." We heard Jack climb both sets of stairs and we could hear a stressed Lily in the background.

"Hi, Uncle."

'Lily, how are you feeling?'

"I'm hungry, I'm tired, I ache all over and I smell of sweat. How do you think I feel?!" Lily breathed deeply and we carried on shopping, getting the ingredients for the omelette. "Sorry, I'm just not too sure what I'm feeling right now."

'Look, just eat some food and get in the shower. We won't be long, and I'm cooking for your tea tonight?'

"Really? Jack, will you go and tell Mrs Hudson that she needs to clean the kitchen? Thanks. Okay, Uncle. I'll see you later. Bye."

'Bye, Lily.' Sherlock hung up and we began to approach the tills. I walked towards the self-service but Sherlock pulled on my sleeve and steered me to the tills operated my people. 'After your last adventure over there, you are not using the self-service. The amount of problems it causes makes it nowhere near quicker, it creates more hassle, and apparently there are a lot of people who are unemployed at the moment, so a self-service till is not the best idea…' So, me, the girl on the till and the family behind us in the queue suffered a lengthy explanation on why self-service tills are bad for the economy.

'Please don't do that next time, Sherlock.'

'Do what?' He asked me as we climbed back in a cab and headed towards Baker Street.

'A lot of people know how bad the self-service tills are, so you don't need to rattle on about it. If you're that bothered, post something about it on your website or ask Mycroft to get them removed.' Sherlock growled. 'Is it just because of Lily that you two argue, or is it something else too?'

'Him being annoying during my childhood was the cause of it. When Dawn was pregnant, the arguments just got more intensified.'

I nodded my head and we grabbed the shopping bags as we arrived at Baker Street. 'Do you think Lily's been okay?'

'She has Jack, Molly and Mrs Hudson looking after her, who all care for her a lot. She'll have been fine.' We entered the house and climbed up the stairs, dumping the bags on the kitchen table. Obviously, Sherlock noticed before I did that something was different.

'Who the hell cleaned the kitchen?!' Mrs Hudson came out of Sherlock's bedroom wearing rubber gloves and was holding the toilet duck.

'Who else would have cleaned the kitchen? I cleaned your bathroom too. It was a mess, I don't see how you expect anyone to use the toilet in there. I'll just go and get cleaned up then I'll put your shopping bags away. Lily's been asking for you. She's just got out of the shower.' We both dumped our coats on the table, leaving Mrs Hudson shouting at us for not hanging them up and we both bounded up the stairs to Lily's room.

She was sat on her bed with Molly, who was painting Lily's nails a light blue colour for her. Jack was lent against the wall watching them, smiling as he looked at Lily. 'Good afternoon, Lily.' They all turned to look at Sherlock and me and they instantly smiled.

'Uncle! I would hug you put my nails aren't dry yet. What's for tea then? You said you were making it.'

'It's a surprise.'

'Hey, Sherlock. Is Mrs Hudson actually your housekeeper? I thought it was a bit strange that when I asked her to come and clean the kitchen she started ranting about how you two can never keep the flat clean.'

'She may as well be our housekeeper. What did Lily have to eat before, Jack?'

'Just a sandwich and a packet of crisps. She wasn't very hungry, but I made her take a long shower; she absolutely stank.'

'I'm sure she'd be happy to hear you say that, Jack.' Jack smiled and shrugged at me before grabbing Lily's plate and taking it downstairs to Mrs Hudson.

'Sherlock, Lily shouldn't go to school on Monday.' We both turned to look at Molly who had finished painting Lily's nails pink.

'Why? She's perfectly fine.'

'When I got into work this morning, I went down to the poison department in the morgue to ask about blatolsis, and they said that victims will experience side effects for a few weeks to come, and the first side effects begin to happen 3 days after the poisoning, starting with throwing up at regular intervals for a day. The third day is Monday. She needs to stay of school.'

'But what if I need to go out on a case?!' Sherlock stamped his foot on the floor like he was child.

'Sherlock Holmes! Stop acting like a five year old!' Molly got up from the bed and stood face to face with Sherlock, which is a lot harder than it sounds, as she's quite a fair bit smaller than Sherlock. 'She'll be sat in the bathroom for most of the day, puking up her guts. Only if there is an incredibly important case that needs your attention outside of the flat, then you can go and I'm sure Mrs Hudson can keep an eye on her. And I know you're thinking that Jack can look after her at school, he won't be allowed in the girl's toilets every half an hour to make sure she's okay.' Sherlock glared at Molly before going back downstairs.

'Wow, Molly Hooper shouting at Sherlock Holmes.' Molly shrugged at me and smiled.

'He lived with me in my flat for a bit when he was dead, so I needed to learn how to handle him. I think looking after my brother's son who's three is possibly easier than looking after him.'

Monday rolled around and I was woken up at five thirty to Lily violently being sick in bathroom in between our bedrooms. Reluctantly, I pulled on my dressing gown and went into the bathroom to find Lily sat on the floor next to the toilet in her pyjamas, looking incredibly pale.

'Have you just started being sick?' Lily nodded and leaned back over the toilet to be sick again. Her long curls were hanging down in front of her face, so I went closer to her and held them behind her head in a ponytail, so she wouldn't get her sick in them. 'It's okay, Lily.' She finished being sick and collapsed against me. 'How do you feel?'

'Weak. Cold. Useless.'

'Go and put a hoodie and some thick socks on. I'll ring Molly and see how regularly you'll be sick and see if you're allowed anything to eat.' Lily slowly walked to her room and I got my mobile from mine. 'Hey, Molly. I'm sorry if I woke you up; I just wanted to know a bit more about the side effects of Blatolsis. Lily's just started being sick.'

"It's okay, I had to get up early this morning anyway for work. If you hadn't rung me I probably would have been late. For about three hours she'll be sick every half an hour for three hours, then after that she'll be sick every hour for three hours, which will be about lunchtime. Then she'll just be sick at random intervals, but it'll be less violent. Don't let her eat anything at all until two o'clock, and give her a glass of water and something plain like crackers. Keep giving her water and then give her a proper meal at about seven o'clock. And I don't mean pizza, a proper meal like meat or fish with pasta and some vegetables or something."

'Alright, thanks, Molly.'

"I'll come around at about half four when I finish work to see how she is."

I felt my eyes narrow as I opened my wardrobe and picked out a pair of jeans and my stripy jumper. 'You seem to care for her a lot.'

"She's just a bit like a sister I never had. My two brothers were so annoying! Anyway, I need to get dressed or I WILL be late for work. See you later, John."

'Bye, Molly.' I hung up, got dressed and went downstairs to make myself some breakfast to find Sherlock sat at the kitchen table looking at something under his microscope. 'What's that?'

'The poison sample I took from Lily. If I can analyse it closely enough I will be able to determine which poisons she is now immune to.' Sherlock looked up at me as I filled up the kettle. 'Why are you up at this time? You get up at half six, not twenty five to six. Is Lily okay?'

'She woke me up when she started to be sick, so I gave Molly a ring and found out what would happen for the rest of the day. She'll be like this until about seven tonight.'

'Oh, brilliant.' I got the cereal and a bowl out of the cupboard and sat opposite him as he returned to looking at the poison specimen.

'When are you going to tell Lily?'

'Tell her what? I may be many things, but one of them is not physic.'

'About you being her Dad.' Sherlock paused slightly in adjusting the microscope. 'She could have died the other day, and she would never have known. She wouldn't ever had known that her mother died trying to save her from death. She wouldn't have ever known that her Dad loved her. She thinks she's a mistake, and so far the only person who's only shown her that she's not is Jack. You need to tell her!' I tried to stay quiet in case Lily could hear me, but it was proving difficult to stay quiet with this conflict going on in my head.

'Well, the next time she's about to die, I'll tell her.' I opened my mouth to speak again, but Sherlock beat me to it. 'No, John. I'll be the one to tell her, not you. I know what I'm doing. If I told her now, it would kill her. Until she came her, Lily has hardly known any happiness. Now, she lives with her favourite family member and is friends with the sort of people that make her feel like she's living in a murder mystery novel, not to mention the fact she has friends of her own age and a boyfriend who would kill himself for her because he loves her that much. I'm not about to set her world containing everything that she's ever wanted in a spin.'

'And I thought you said you weren't physic.'

Jack came round before he went to school to see how Lily was doing. 'Where is she?'

'Most likely the bathroom upstairs. Don't give her any food, no matter what she says.' Jack smiled and ran up the stairs, and then I heard the sounds of someone else running over the noise of the television. It must have been Lily running to the bathroom. Jack came down a few minutes later, shaking water off his hands. 'Was she sick again?'

'Yeah, I had to hold her hair back. Doesn't she have a bobble or something? I got sick on my hands as I tried to pull it back from her face.' Jack wandered into the kitchen, washed his hands again and dried them on the tea towel.

'Probably, she hasn't got round to unpacking everything yet though. I'll go and see if Mrs Hudson has some later.'

'I'll probably come back after school. Am I allowed to bring Kitty?' We both looked over at Sherlock who had gone to his violin for inspiration over which poisons Lily would now be immune to.

'Yeah, just tell her not to act too weird.' So, Jack left, Lily kept on throwing up and Sherlock still didn't know, but at around two o'clock we had a newspaper reporter from the Sun come and apologise to Sherlock for what Kitty Riley had done the previous year. Thankfully, Sherlock accepted the apology after he learned that Kitty had been fired, and he also let the Sun interview him. Which ordinarily would have been perfectly fine. If Lily hadn't been in the house.

'John, it's two o'clock. You said I was allowed food at two o'clock.' Lily had come downstairs from her bedroom, looking weaker than this morning. This would have been fine if the reporter hadn't been here, and it would have been even better still if Lily had put on her blue hoodie, not her pink hoodie. But obviously, the reporter picked up on the hoodie straight away.

'Isn't that the hoodie that has been all over the newspapers for 3 weeks? Isn't it supposed to belong to your girlfriend?' The reporter looked puzzled as he looked back and forth between Lily and Sherlock.

'Wow, you're even more stupid than you act. I don't have girlfriend. This is my niece, Lily.'

'Niece? Pleased to meet you, Miss Holmes.' The reporter got up and stuck out his hand for Lily to shake. 'I'm Damien Wilde, chief editor at the Sun.' Lily shook his hand and after the reporter had looked at her once again: he could tell that she was ill.

'Don't worry. I was poisoned on Friday night and this is a side effect of the poison. You won't be chucking up your guts tomorrow. Please can I have some food now?!' Lily turned to me clutching her stomach.

'Yes, but Molly said you're only allowed something plain.'

'I don't care as long as it's food.' Lily followed me into the kitchen as I poured her a glass of water and rooted in the cupboards to find plain food, all the while Sherlock was telling the reporter about how Lily's mother had died in car crash and Mycroft had kept her under lock and key at the Holmes Manor so nothing bad would happen to her because he loved her that much. Thankfully, Lily was too busy eating to hear his pack of lies.

The reporter left as Molly came, giving her a strange look. 'How's Lily?'

'I'm fine.' Lily looked up from the settee, looking considerably less weak than before. 'I haven't been sick since just before two o'clock.'

'Good. I've brought you some things for your tea; I doubted your Uncle having anything decent in, even though they only went shopping on Saturday.'

'You didn't need to do that, Molly.' Sherlock came out of his bedroom and stood next to where I was sat in my chair.

'Sherlock, you have no idea what a proper meal consists of, even though you had several whilst you lived with me for a bit.' Sherlock shook his head and took the shopping bag off Molly and dumped it on the kitchen counter, calling Molly over to look at the poison.

'Did you think they're friends now?'

'They were friends in the first place, Lily. I just think that Sherlock respects her more for what she did for him last year. Anyway, I'm going to do a blog post about you. Everyone's going to find out now anyway.' I opened my laptop and began typing.

_**The Personal Blog of Dr. John H. Watson**_

**14****th**** July- Sherlock's Niece and Blatolsis**

_So, Sherlock finally let me write about his niece, because you'll all find out soon anyway. Her name is Lily and she is fourteen, fifteen on the tenth of November. She arrived only a few minutes after Sherlock reappeared, giving us all another shock. I mean, since when did Sherlock have a niece?_

'You can't say anything too personal.'

'I'm not going to say how Mycroft kept her locked in her bedroom, if that's what you're worried about, Sherlock.'

_So, after we all got over the initial shock of my best friend having a niece, she announced that she was moving in upstairs for a bit. Obviously, this shook us all. The last time I spoke to teenager, not counting the homeless network, was Raz, which was quite a while ago now. And he wasn't exactly pleasant. Anyway, Lily moved in and she started school, and made friends and got a boyfriend, so me and Sherlock were way out of our depth when they had their first major fall out._

_But, good news, we have a new lead on Moriarty. Which eventually entailed Lily getting poisoned._

I typed up the details of the case and Lily text Kitty to let her know that I had a new blog post up and asking her if she could come round after school with Jack.

'Uncle, can Kitty come around after school? Great, thanks.'

'I'm pretty sure I didn't say yes.' Lily stuck her tongue out Sherlock, who simply smiled and chuckled quietly. I put my laptop on the desk and walked into the kitchen, pulling the screen across a little.

'You do realise that Lily's presence here in the flat changes you?' Molly looked up from the microscope and Sherlock stopped rooting around in the fridge.

'He's right. You act nicer when she's around, you appear like you care, you're over protective of her and you don't voice your deductions as much. If you flirted with people and ate more, you'd be almost normal. Wow, that's scary. I can't actually imagine you as normal.'

'Shut up, Molly.' Molly sat back in her chair a little, showing that she was hurt. 'Oh, I'm sorry, Molly, it's just, Lily has always known me as this. You two have always known me as that.'

'Ha, got you.' Sherlock narrowed his eyes and looked confused. 'If you were acting what we associate as normal for you, you would have been able to deduce that I was faking being hurt by you telling me to shut up. You really have let yourself go, haven't you?' Sherlock shook his head and went into his bedroom, slamming to door. 'Did we see too much?'

I shrugged. 'Maybe if you can figure out what poisons Lily's immune to he'll forgive you. But then again, he might have a go at you for working it out before he did. It's your choice.' Sherlock stayed in his bedroom moping until Jack and Kitty showed up.

'Jack! Kitty!' Me and Molly had walked into the living room just in time to see Jack and Kitty engulf Lily in a hug.

'How are you feeling?' They both sat on the settee either side of Lily, taking in her rough appearance. She certainly didn't look as pale as she did this morning.

'Much better, thanks.'

'Lily, I'm going to put your tea on. I know I should wait a bit longer to give you a proper meal, but you seemed to have recovered quite well.' Molly got up from Sherlock's chair and began to walk over to the kitchen when Kitty gasped.

'You're Molly Hooper, aren't you?' She nodded slowly. 'Wow! This is incredible!' Kitty followed Molly into the kitchen telling Molly things she already knew about her life. Sherlock must have heard Molly say she was going to make Lily her tea, for as soon as she entered the kitchen, Sherlock came out of his bedroom.

'I'll make her tea, Molly.' Sherlock gritted his teeth in a smile.

'No, it's okay, I'll do it.' They both walked over to the bag with the food in, with a primal look on their faces.

'Why don't you do it together?' Molly and Sherlock hesitated, but eventually began to make the tea together, with Kitty sat at the table talking to no one in particular about nothing.

'I think they could be a while.' Lily agreed with Jack, and snuggled closer to him on the settee, falling asleep on his shoulder. He kissed her forehead and smiled at her peaceful form, and he continually stared at her until he had to wake her up as her tea was ready. For a boy who's only known a girl three weeks, he really does love her. Maybe I should give Sarah a call…


	13. Chapter 13

CHAPTER 13-

I was back at school the next day, and I had suddenly become popular, now that mine and Jack's relationship had been 'confirmed'. I had loads of offers of lunch in the canteen with girls in my year who I didn't even know, but I always turned them down as I wanted to spend time with Jack, Kitty and Clive.

'You should hang out with them, you know. If you don't, you won't be popular anymore. Hanging out with people like us isn't good for your image.' I broke out of Jack's protective hold over my shoulders and propped myself up on my elbows.

'I'm not bothered about being popular, Kitty.'

'You will be when Jack isn't as popular anymore…' Jack too propped himself up on his elbows and gave Clive a death glare.

'I don't care either. I've never liked being popular, it just attracts too much unwanted attention. It all happened because I just happened to hang out with these guys,' Jack gestured to the year 9 lads playing football near us. 'and one of them suddenly became popular, so all of his friends did too. I'm just even more popular than that one who first became the star because girls just like what I look like. But it's not like I can help that.'

'Strictly speaking, you could help it. You could turn up to school with dirt on your face, your hair a mess and dressed like a tramp. Or, alternatively, you could purposely get your face mauled off by a dog.' Jack looked at me in horror before he grinned.

'And you seriously want your boyfriend turning up to school like that?' Before he gave me a chance to reply, he had kissed me and I had giggled at the same time as Clive and Kitty groaning. 'What is it this time?' Jack rolled his eyes and pulled away from me to look at the pair.

'Please, enough with the public displays of affection.'

'You have a girlfriend though, Clive! Are you really complaining?'

'Jess goes to the Esther Whittaker Academy, so I don't see her every day, and when I do, I'm not all over her like you are with Lily.' Jack laughed in an I-find-that-hard-to-believe kind of way.

'And what about you, Kitty? What's your problem?'

'It's just a bit… disgusting.' I raised my eyebrows at her. 'Okay! It's because I've never been kissed before!' Kitty rolled over on the grass so she facing away from us. I crawled over and led down next to her.

'How come? You're really pretty.'

'Yeah, but if you're really annoying, boys don't tend to like that. And the only talking point I've got in my life, is Sherlock Holmes.'

'You do realise that that can be a really annoying topic.'

'Exactly!' I laughed, and Kitty joined in, as did Clive and Jack eventually.

'You'll find someone soon, Kitty. Is there no one at the "I believe in Sherlock Holmes" meetings that you like?'

'Well, there is this one guy…' Clive laughed and Jack crawled over closer to us as both turned back over to face the sky.

'What's he like?' Clive laughed again, not giving Kitty a chance to reply.

'He's a complete idiot and he looks like a paedophile.' Kitty smacked his arm.

'He is not! His name is Nate. He's really kind, sweet, funny…' Kitty went into a day-dreamy state and looked up at the sky, obviously thinking about him. I know that look. It's the look I have when I think about Jack. It's the look I have when I'm sometimes with him and we're just sat doing nothing. It's the look Molly has when she thinks my Uncle's not looking.

'A douchebag…' Kitty smacked Clive again and they both laughed. 'Okay, he's not too bad. He'll be at the meeting this Friday. You should come, Lily. You can meet him.'

'Yeah, and I convinced Molly to be our guest speaker! If you both come, we can have two guest speakers!' Clive and Kitty both grinned and high fived each other.

'Oh, okay then. What are you doing this Friday night?' I turned to look at Jack who was led down opposite me now.

'Nothing. I'll come with you. I need to give this Nate person a full inspection.' We all laughed and the bell went for the end of lunch. Jack got up and pulled me up with him, holding tightly onto my hand as we walked back into the Academy.

Friday came and Kitty and Clive came around to the flat at half five to pick up me, Jack and Molly. 'It's going to be so much fun, guys!' Kitty and Clive led us through London to the meeting on the Underground when Jack leaned over to me.

'And she seriously wonders why she doesn't have a boyfriend yet.' I giggled and he smiled. 'I hope this Nate person is alright. Kitty's been alone for a while now, she deserves someone good.'

'Arrrr, you're a sweet teenage boy.' I leaned back up to him and kissed him, at the same time Clive coughed.

'Public displays of affection…'

'Shut up, Clive. I'm pretty sure we'll be seeing plenty of public displays of affection between you and Jessamine tonight.' Clive stuck his tongue out at Jack and turned to talk to his sister as Jack put his arm around me. A little while after, we got off the Underground and walked up to a dilapidated memorial Hall.

'You may recognise this Hall as the Hall the black lotus used to put on the Chinese Circus.'

'Kitty, I hope this boy really likes Sherlock…' I linked arms with Jack and Molly and walked up the steps with Clive and Kitty.

'Hey, Warren. I've brought two guest speakers with me.' Kitty and Clive stepped apart to reveal me and Molly and Warren stepped out from behind the desk looking as ecstatic as Kitty first did when she met me.

'Miss Hooper, Miss Holmes, it is an absolute pleasure to have you here with us tonight.' He shook both of our hands. 'I shall be in the function room shortly, but for now, Kitty will you please show them backstage and tell them their roles for tonight.' Kitty nodded and we began following her again. We arrived at the function room Warren was talking about to find about ten people setting up chairs and tables for the meeting.

'Hey, Nate!' Kitty shouted across the room to a boy of Kitty's age, who had longish hair and glasses. He smiled when he saw her and immediately abandoned the chairs he was setting out and ran over.

'Hi, Kitty.' He looked at me, Jack and Molly. 'Who are your friends?' Jack put his hand around my waist and pulled me towards him until I was practically lent against him.

'Well, this is Molly Hooper, who you know about, and Lily Holmes, who you also know about. And this is Lily's boyfriend, Jack Howell, who you also know about, but he won't be speaking tonight.'

'Nice to meet you all.' Nate shook all of our hands and walked off with Kitty talking whilst Clive showed us to their usual table.

'I'll take you backstage in a minute, I just need to find Jessamine.' Clive began to look around the hall when someone shrieked from the other side of it.

'Clive!' A girl with long brown hair was running across the hall to him, and took him in a tight hug, and they started kissing. A lot.

'And we apparently put on public displays of affections.' We both laughed and my mind went back to something earlier. 'How come you were holding onto me really tightly before when Nate came over?'

'Because he looked at you.' I raised my eyebrows at him.

'He's allowed to look at me. He looked at Molly too, and you didn't hold onto her.'

'But you're my girlfriend!'

'So?! You don't do that when Adam or Clive or any other lads we know look at me. Besides, Nate really likes Kitty.'

'How can you tell?' Molly and Jack both looked at me in despair.

'Pupils dilating, trying to act cool, being nice, doing what she wants. I now know what it means.' I stuck my tongue out at Jack and he laughed.

'There are times when you still act like you're ten.' I smiled and shrugged my shoulders as Clive returned to our table with his hair a mess and Jessamine in tow.

'Molly, Lily, I'll show you where to wait backstage.' Me and Molly got up to follow Clive as Jessamine sat down with Jack and he coughed.

'Public Displays of Affection…' Jess looked at him strangely and Clive glared at him.

'It's this way.' Clive led us up some steps onto the stage and round backstage into a dressing room. 'Just ignore the yellow stripe across one of the mirrors. We can't seem to get it off.' I smiled. I'm sure Sherlock mentioned that once. 'If you just want to wait in here until more people have arrived and I'll come and get you. In the meantime, I'm going to have a word with Jack. Do you mind if I punch him?'

'Yes! I don't want you to mess up his handsome face!' Clive smiled and disappeared, leaving me with Molly.

'Lily, don't bother talking to Sherlock about me. Nothing's ever going to happen, and I don't think he likes me very much at the minute.'

'Are you sure? I mean, you've spent almost four years now pining after him.'

'Yeah. I always knew it wasn't going to happen. I need to move on.' I smiled and we conversed talking about work, school, Jack, cases and Molly's ex's.

'Guys, we're ready for you now.' Clive poked his head backstage and we followed him out onto the stage, taking our seats behind a white table with two microphones on it. People started clapping and cheering and screaming as we came on the stage. If this is the reaction that me and Molly get, what kind of reaction would Sherlock and John get. I took my seat next to Molly and looked out at the audience to see Jack sat with Nate, Kitty, Clive and Jessamine right at the front of the hall full of what Kitty calls 'Watson Warriors'. I'm sure John will be pleased about that.

'Ladies and Gentlemen of the Watson Warriors, we proudly present to you as guest speakers, Molly Hooper and Lily Holmes!' The crowd cheered even more and the commentator started asking us questions about Sherlock and our own lives and everyone in the audience apart from Jack was scribbling down every last detail. 'Now, we'll take questions from the audience. Young man at table one!' I looked around the room to see Jack standing up, ready to speak.

'Hi, Lily. Just a rumour that I wanted confirming, but I hear your boyfriend is really nice. Is that true?'

'No, he's horrible. I'm only with him because I feel sorry for him.'

'Really?'

'No. Sit down and stop asking pointless questions, Jack.' He laughed and let someone else ask a question. This tedious task went on for an hour and a half, but it was after seven more questions that I began to wonder why I had agreed to do this. Is this seriously what they do every Friday night? My Uncle isn't that interesting.

After what seemed like the most pointless meeting of my life, Molly, Clive and Kitty all got back on the Underground, and me and Jack wandered around London talking and laughing, and managed to subconsciously end up back at Baker Street at half nine.

'Do you want to come in?'

'No, my mum will be wondering where I am, she seems to have gotten over protective of me recently. If you need anything, my phone will be on. Good night, Lily.' Jack kissed me, his hands slipping around my waist and mine going around his neck. We hugged after pulling away and he talked into my hair. 'I love you.'

'I love you too.'

'Go on. I'll see you tomorrow, at about one o'clock? My mum wants me to go shopping with her or something. And remember to lock the door this time.' He sighed and backed away from me.

'I will. Good night, Jack.' I reluctantly left him and went inside the flat, locking the door behind me. I ran up the stairs, ready to hang my coat up on the door and go change in to my pyjamas, but Sherlock stopped me.

'Nope.' He put his hands on my back and quickly guided me down the stairs and out onto the Street again. He ran out into the road with John and hailed a cab. 'Come on, Lily!' I sighed and ran to the waiting cab, sitting in between the two grown men.

'Where are we going? I'm tired, Uncle. That meeting was tedious.'

'We have another lead. Before the warehouse was properly closed down, Lestrade's team investigated the part of Warehouse we didn't get round to because Moriarty had arrived, and they found a serious of clues leading them to another warehouse.'

'As much as I enjoyed it last time, I don't want to get poisoned again.'

John laughed. 'Don't worry, Lily. They've already checked the warehouse and there's no poison in it, but they've left all of the proper investigating to us.'

'I mean, Lestrade and Donovan are only amateurs, but having said that, Lestrade is getting better. But only very slightly.' Shortly, the cab pulled up outside another abandoned warehouse, but it looked better than the last one. For one thing, it had a door instead of sheets of metal.

After the cab left, we went into the warehouse. John, ready to give me a torch, found the light switch. 'Well, this warehouse is certainly nicer than the other one. Moriarty's got better taste.' He put the torch away and all three of us moved through the warehouse, cautious of everything. We eventually came to a large hall with shutters on the windows and two doors at the other end of it, which were open. John slowly stepped into the room and tried the light switch. Nothing. 'The lights must have gone in this room.'

'Congratulations, John.' John glared at Sherlock and gave us both a torch as we entered the room. I looked upwards to see something that looked like shower heads lining each wall. I recognised it straight away. There was one of them in my bedroom at Holmes Manor. Well, with one of those in it, it was more like a torture chamber than a bedroom.

'Uncle…' I stepped forwards slightly so I further inside the room, and Sherlock turned to me with a questioning look on his face. I pointed to the nearest one and his eyes glowed with horror when he saw it.

'We have to get out now.' Sherlock began to walk towards me and I turned to the door we had come in at, to find it being shut by someone. I ran towards it, but it was locked. John and Sherlock began trying to open the other two doors, but found them locked too.

'Uncle… John…' Sherlock came over to me and took my hand and held John close. 'What's going to happen?'

'You know what's going to happen. It'll be alright though.' John looked puzzled and glanced around the room at the shower heads.

'What are they?' Sherlock opened his mouth to speak, but someone else answered before he did.

"Why, Dr Watson, don't you know? I expect someone living with Sherlock Holmes would know what they are." An Irish accent had entered the room, leaving Sherlock and John looking like they were going to be sick. I looked at Sherlock but he just shook his head. "There's no good shaking your head, Sherlock. Your precious niece will find out soon enough. I'm Jim Moriarty of course!"

'Where are you?!'

"Well, clearly, not in the room you're in. I don't want to get gassed." A hissing sound started and we all turned to look at the shower heads, seeing a steady stream of white gas float out of them. "It won't kill you. It'll just knock you out, and when you're all asleep, then I'll come and kill you. For real this time. Good night!" The voice stopped and Sherlock and John started coughing and I stood with them looking blank.

'Uncle… what's going to happen?'

'When we've both been knocked out, ring Lestrade. Tell him to get here as soon as he can…' Sherlock's voice began fading and he fell onto John. Slowly, we laid him down on the floor and John sat there looking incredibly weak. He opened his mouth to say something, but no sound came out and he fell backwards so he was led down.

'This is fun.' The gas carried on streaming into the room, but I hadn't so much as coughed. I took out my phone, found Lestrade's number, and rang it.

"D.I. Lestrade speaking."

'Hey, Lestrade, it's Lily.'

"Oh, hi, Lily. Are you at the warehouse?"

'Yeah, but Moriarty's knocked Sherlock and John out with gas and locked us all in a room, so a team of officers and some medical attention would be much appreciated. And as soon as possible. Oh, and bring gas masks.'

"Donovan! On our way, just hang tight, Lily." I hung up and found half a bag of mints in John's coat pocket and began to eat them, waiting for Lestrade to turn up.

Ten minutes later, the door we all entered through burst open and Lestrade, Donovan and other members of his team came into the room, all wearing gas masks. Medical staff ran over to Sherlock and John, carrying them out as soon as they saw it fit to move them. One of Lestrade's trainee's tried to put a gas mask on me, but I swatted them away telling them I didn't need one.

'Lily, you need to put it on.' Is what I think Lestrade said. I shook my head and smiled.

'I have resilience to gas, no I don't.'

'Well, will you at least come to the hospital and get checked over?' I sighed and nodded, and let a member of his team lead me out to the ambulance they had brought with them to see Sherlock and John already strapped in on trolleys with an oxygen mask on each of them.

'Are they okay?' I asked the ambulance person as we quickly made our way through the streets of London to St. Barts hospital.

'Well, they're breathing, but there lungs will need to be checked thoroughly to make sure that they can breathe properly, so they will probably need to stay in overnight.' I nodded. 'How come you weren't knocked out?' I simply shrugged my shoulders and smiled, sat back in the seat and carried on eating John's mints.


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: **I'm so sorry this took so long! Me and my beta were busy over summer, but here it is! And a special thank you to **Mrs.T'Abby S'chn T'gai Kirk **for reminding me to upload this!

CHAPTER 14-

We arrived at the hospital fast, faster than what I expected. I realised that it probably because Molly was stood outside, lab coat wrapped around her. She had probably managed to pull a few strings to make the ambulance driver get to the hospital quicker.

'Lily! What happened?'

'What, you don't know?'

'Well, yes, but it's just a way of socialising. So, are you going to tell me then?'

I sighed and gave in. 'Sherlock and John got knocked out with gas and I sat there eating mints. Do you want one?' I held out the almost empty bag to Molly.

'Wait! How come you weren't knocked out? Do you have a gas mask in your pocket or something?' I laughed and shook my head.

'Can I go and see my Uncle and John?' Molly nodded and led me into the hospital A and E and through into an enclosed room with a police officer outside. 'What's with the police officer?'

'Well, Moriarty's back, so they need protecting. You better stay in here too, just in case he tries to come to the hospital.'

'What about you? You were in one of the pictures that Moriarty sent.' She laughed.

'I've got my work to do, I'm just on a break so I need to get back upstairs. I'll come back down occasionally. And it's not like me and Sherlock are on good terms at the moment. Why don't you ring Jack? He needs to know Moriarty's back after he threatened him with your life.'

'I still don't get why that was a threat to him…'

'You'll understand when you're older.' Molly laughed again and left and I took out my phone, dialling Jack's number that I had subconsciously memorized from staring at it when I waited for him to text. 'Hey, Jack.'

"Ugh… Lily? It's eleven at night. I have a paper round to do in the morning. What is it?"

'Sorry, to wake you, but it's Moriarty.' I heard a rustling of sheets and clothes and then a loud thump. 'Did you just fall out of bed?'

"I'm trying to get dressed, but it's not easy when I'm holding the phone. What's he done?" I sighed and reluctantly told him.

'He gassed Sherlock and John.'

"He what?! Where are you?" I heard his front door click and the sound of his feet running along the pavement.

'St. Barts, A and E. You don't have to come.'

"Yes, I do. Did he hurt you? Moriarty?" I heard the squeak of an Underground train pull into a station.

'No, he doesn't know I have resilience to gas.'

"You have a what?"

'Nothing, I'll explain when you get here. I'll wait outside for you.'

"Okay, I won't be long. Bye, Lily."

'Bye.' I hung up and looked through the window into the room where Sherlock and John were. They both looked horrible, both of them led there with wires going in and tubes going out and doctors and nurses running tests on them. I sighed and turned to go and wait for Jack, but Lestrade stopped me.

'Where are you going Lily?'

'I'm going to meet Jack, I said I'd meet him outside the A and E.'

'No, you're not.' Lestrade grabbed me by the shoulders and steered me towards the cubicles. 'You need to get properly checked out. You'll have probably inhaled some of the gas, and whilst we're here, you may as well get that poison thing checked out.' He sat me down on a bed and a nurse came in. 'Johnson!' A trainee officer appeared at his side instantly; evidentially eager to please. 'Johnson, look after Lily. Make sure she doesn't run off and if Moriarty comes, protect her.' Johnson nodded and Lestrade left, pulling the curtain closed behind him.

'Okay, Lily. I'm Nurse Morstan. We just need to make sure you haven't inhaled a lot of gas and to apparently check the amount of Blatolsis in your blood stream. When were you poisoned?'

'Last Friday Night.' (**A/N **Have you listened to the Sherlock version of that song? It's brilliant.)

'And how were you cured?'

'I don't know, I was unconscious for most of it.' I sighed and got another mint out of the bag. 'All I know is that I was poisoned in a warehouse and I fell unconscious in my bedroom. I woke up for a few seconds and had a small conversation with my boyfriend, then I woke up properly on a settee. Then John stitched up the cut where the poison had entered me blood stream and he put me to sleep, and I was carried back upstairs to my bedroom before I fell asleep. If you really want to know what happened in between, you'll have to ask my Uncle, but he's currently unconscious.'

The nurse scribbled some things down on a clipboard then looked back up at me. 'John stitched you up, you said? Does he have medical qualifications?'

'I hope so. He was an army doctor in Afghanistan and he now works part time at a surgery.' She smiled.

'That's okay then. Can you show me it?' I lifted up my top slightly and she inspected the stitching. 'Mmm… excellent job. I'm just going to check your blood pressure to see how the gas has affected it. Can you please take off your coat and roll up your sleeve?' I did as Nurse Morstan said as she got out a piece of fabric with some wires attached to it. She wrapped it around my arm and began looking at the results that were appearing on a screen. 'It seems your blood has gas and poison in it already. But neither of them seem to be affecting you. I know that people who've been poisoned with Blatolsis have it their blood stream forever, giving them resilience to certain poisons. However, the gas doesn't seem to be affecting you at all.' The nurse took the fabric off my arm and put it back in a draw. 'Tell me, when your Uncle and his friend were knocked out, did you feel dizzy, or did you begin to cough?' I shook my head. 'Do you know why?'

'Yes, but I think it's up to my Uncle to tell you why.' Nurse Morstan narrowed her eyes at me before writing something down again and pulling back the curtain. 'You can go and see your Uncle and his friend now, but after he's come round, I want to know why you're resilient to gas. You better stay with her.' Johnson nodded and the Nurse left. I grabbed my coat and began to walk to wear Sherlock and John were, but before I could enter the room, I saw Jack.

'Lily!' We ran to each other and he hugged me tightly. 'Are you okay?'

'I'm fine. I just want to see if my Uncle and John are okay.' I pulled away from him and he kissed me on the cheek before he put his arm around me and let me lead him to the room where they were unconscious, with Lestrade and Johnson following us. We sat on some chairs that had been placed between their beds: me closer to Sherlock, Jack closer to John.

Lestrade and Johnson stood at the back of the room, watching us watch them. My Uncle looked so peaceful in his sleep. I remember vaguely once when I was four and he came around to the manor to play with me. We sat outside in the garden and played with a baby doll and a toy pram, and we pushed it around the garden for hours. The sun had started to go down and we were both led on the grass. I was still hyper but he was exhausted and he fell asleep. I laughed and went to wake him up, but a servant came out and picked me and my toys up and took me back inside the manor as my Dad went out to talk to my sleeping Uncle. The next time I heard my Uncle was 3 months ago. The next time I saw my Uncle was 4 weeks ago.

All of a sudden, Sherlock's hand began to move under mine. I shot up in time to see his eyes open and him smile at me. He slowly reached up and took the oxygen mask off. 'Hi, Lily.' A huge wave of relief swept over me and I hugged me Uncle powerfully. He patted my back and chuckled slightly. 'Are you okay?'

'Don't ask stupid questions, Uncle. You know that more than anyone. Are YOU okay?' He nodded and breathed into the oxygen mask once more. 'Nurse Morstan wants to ask you why I'm resilient to gas and what happened when I was unconscious with the poison.' Sherlock nodded.

'Send her in then.' Johnson nodded and left the room, returning a minute later with Nurse Morstan. 'Hello, Mr Holmes. How are you feeling?'

'Well, if you had just been gassed, how would you feel?' Lestrade and Jack laughed, knowing that my Uncle was as normal as ever.

The nurse gritted her teeth in a smile. 'Of course, Mr Holmes. Now, I have a few questions concerning your niece. How did you cure her of Blatolsis?'

'Water, calpol, a dead man's blood and liquefied belladonna.'

'Eww, really? You injected that in to me?' I shuddered. Jack laughed and held my hand.

'Well, it was either that or you dying. Anyway, I don't know how much we gave her and the rest of it. Ask John when he's up.' The nurse nodded.

'Please could you know explain to me about the gas? I do know that people are only resilient to gas if they've been exposed to it before, but that was quite a high level of gas.'

'It wasn't that high…' I muttered quietly so only Jack could hear me. Sherlock looked at me and I nodded, telling him to tell everyone.

'When Lily lived with her father, he was ashamed of her and had her locked away in a room. When visitors came around, they could hear her cries for help, so he used gas to knock her out. Eventually, you do become more and more resilient to gas, so the only gas Lily won't be resilient to now will be probably something Zyklon B.'

'Is this true Mr. Holmes?!' The nurse looked absolutely horrified.

'It's not as bad as it sounds. It's not like it hurt or anything.' Jack stood up and looked at me before falling to the floor. I fiddled with my mum's pink bracelet as he stared at me.

'Not as bad as it sounds?! You could have been killed!'

'Actually, you have to inhale a lot almost every single day to be killed from it. It only happened about once a month.' I couldn't bear to look at Jack's devastated face, so I just stared into my lap instead.

'Has Lily's dad been arrested?'

'No. He's practically the prime minister. It's not like you can arrest him for torturing his daughter.' Nurse Morstan looked through the notes she had previously taken and found my father's name.

'Mr Mycroft Holmes? Have you rung the police? They need to be told about this.'

'There's no point, Nurse Morstan. Just leave it.' The nurse looked as if she was having an internal argument, but she eventually moved to Sherlock's bedside and began checking him over. 'I need to go outside. Jack?' He looked up at me from the floor and nodded.

'Johnson.' The young police officer from the back of the room nodded at Lestrade's instruction and followed us out of the hospital, staying away from us to give us privacy, but watching our every move.

'I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. It's one thing never being outside of the grounds of the Holmes Manor for my entire life, but it's something completely different to be gassed every month.' Jack looked right through me like I was ghost. 'Jack? Please say something.' I was about to get worried, but before I could he embraced me in the tightest hug that I've ever experienced.

'Don't ever keep anything from me again, okay?'

'Okay, Jack.'

'Is there anything else he ever did to you?'

'Laughed at me whilst I choked to death in my bedroom.'

'Do you mind if I beat up your Dad when I meet him?' I laughed.

'Not at all. But he is a bit taller than you.'

'Yes, but from what I've gathered he goes from to the office and the manor without much exercise. I'm on the football team and have a paper round. Which reminds me, I need some sleep. I think I'll go and say goodbye to your Uncle and John if he's awake, then I'll go home and sleep. Don't ever wake me up again at this time unless you're dying.' We both laughed and walked back into the hospital, Johnson following us.

When we got back to the room, John was sitting up in his bed, looking dreamingly at Nurse Morstan as she checked him over.

'Hey, John. How are you feeling?'

'Much better, thanks, Jack. Come here, you two.' We walked over to John's bed and he hugged us both.

'What was that for?'

'Not sure really, just felt like it. When I get up, Sherlock's next.' My Uncle groaned and we all laughed.

'Okay, I need to go and get some sleep, so I'm going to go. Bye everyone.' Jack kissed my lightly on the lips and began to leave, but Lestrade spoke up before he could.

'Wait! Johnson, go with him.' We all looked puzzled. 'Jack's been threatened and targeted by Moriarty, so he needs protection. Johnson will go with you everywhere and there is already a police officer outside of your mum's flat.'

'So he gets to do my paper round with me?' Lestrade nodded and Jack grinned. He put his arm around Johnson's shoulder and they began to walk out of the room. 'Okay, Johnson, I'm going to teach you how to live. Lesson 1: Lose the goatee, it doesn't go with your suit.'

'I don't have a goatee…' They left the room, leaving us all baffled as to why Jack had said that.

'Jack really needs to stop watching American television.'


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: ** Thank you to my reviewer **Mrs. T'abby S'chn T'gai Kirk**!

CHAPTER 15-

'No way! There is nothing on this earth that would make me go back there!' I had been out with Jack, Kitty, Clive, Jessamine and Nate to the cinema to watch the new Midnight Charter film to celebrate school finishing for the summer. After, me and Jack went for a walk in Regent's Park, and everything was perfect until we got back to the flat.

In my absence, my father had been around to tell Sherlock and John that I would be spending all summer at Holmes Manor.

'You can't send her back there! Not after what he's done to her!'

'Mycroft said we have to…'

'And since when did the great Sherlock Holmes take orders from anyone?' My Uncle's head snapped up at my comment.

'I don't have a choice in the matter. If it was up to me, you'd be living with me and John permanently. You'll be leaving tomorrow night. You don't need to take everything as you're coming back at the end of August, just take what you need.' My Uncle waved me off and picked up his violin before staring out into the street and playing some random tune. I narrowed my eyes and ran up the stairs, not expecting anyone to follow me. And they didn't. Not even Jack. I led on my bed and cried into the pillow.

How could my Uncle do this?! He knows how much I hate Mycroft and the Manor of doom. He knows how much I want to stay here with him and John and Jack and all of my friends and solve crimes. I was so angry that I hadn't noticed Jack come in my room and sit down beside me, gently stroking my curly hair.

'Your Uncle won't change his mind.' I sat up and stared at Jack.

'I know, but I just want to stay here all summer, not spend it in the middle of nowhere in a massive house where the only place I can go other than my bedroom is the bathroom and the garden. That's if I'm allowed. I don't want to go, Jack. I'll miss you.' I hugged him and cried into his chest.

'I'll ring you every day, Lily.'

'So you can tell me what such a brilliant time you're having here with everyone? Err, no thanks. Maybe every week. We'll look forward to it more.' He nodded.

'Okay, every Thursday night then. I'll ring you at seven.' I nodded and breathed in his scent so I wouldn't forget it whilst I was away.

'You won't fall out of love with me whilst I'm away, will you?' Jack pulled away from me and looked me straight in the eye.

'No, I won't, Lily. If it makes you any happier, I won't even look at any other girl whilst you're away. I mean, it may be a little hard not to look at my mum, Mrs Hudson, Molly, Kitty, Jessamine, the woman at the paper shop and any other girl I happen upon, but I'll do it.'

'You know what I mean.' I playfully smacked his arm and he laughed softly.

'Lily, I love you more than anything in the world. No stupid slut that I might meet during the summer is ever going to change that.'

'You've changed since I first met you. You used to be some nice bad boy. You're your just a nice teenager who occasionally pulls a few pranks at school.'

'You must have subconsciously changed me then. Do you want me to change back?' I shook my head.

'I love you just the way you are.' We both smiled. 'I should better start packing then…'

Tomorrow night came faster than I wanted it to. One of the family's limos was parked outside of the flat, my suitcase already inside. Now just came the goodbyes. All of my friends were lined up on the street, bringing a few tears to my eyes. I started with Kitty, Clive and Jessamine.

'I'm going to miss you all.' I hugged them all each, giving Kitty a tighter one than the others.

'You'll be back in August. And by then I'm sure I'll have convinced your Uncle to make a guest appearance at one of the believe in Sherlock Holmes meetings.'

'Don't annoy him too much.' I moved onto Lestrade.

'Lily. You've been a real help these few months. Maybe when you finish college, you could work for the police.'

I laughed and threw my head back. 'Yeah, maybe.' I hugged him and walked over to Molly. 'Oh, Molly.' I watched as a few tears rolled down her cheeks.

'I'm fine, really.'

'Yeah, of course you are.' I hugged her thin frame tightly, being able to smell flesh and blood on her. 'You smell of the morgue.'

'I came straight from work.' I let go of her and smiled, moving onto Mrs Hudson. She empowered me in a hug straight away, suffocating me in a hug of her old woman smell.

'Thank you.'

'What for?'

'For making Sherlock happy. I've known him for many years, and he's smiled every day you've been here. Him smiling was a rare occasion, even after John became his best friend. So thank you.' I smiled and let go of her, letting her join Molly in crying.

John. I hugged him straight away and then kissed him on the cheek. 'John, you are amazing. You're like an Uncle to me.'

'Well, I already knew I was amazing, but being like your Uncle just makes me even more amazing. And let's be honest, I'm a better Uncle than your real one is.'

'Anyone is, John.' I pulled away and he smiled at me slightly, like he was hiding something. I dismissed it to the back of my mind to think about later and I moved onto Jack. He looked at me for a long time before pulling my body close to him, his hands going naturally around my waist.

'I'm going to miss you so much, Lily.' He stroked the side of my face.

'I'll miss you too.' Jack kissed my passionately, and no one commented, not even Clive. I'm not sure how long it was until we had stopped kissing, but it was definitely a while. 'I love you, Jack.'

'I love you too, Lily.' We both smiled and I moved onto the last person in the line: my Uncle Sherlock.

He stood with his arms folded looking into my eyes. They were the same colour as mine: verdigris. He pulled me into a hug, and I was able to feel all of his bones as he wasn't wearing his trench coat.

'You need to eat more, Uncle.' He laughed quietly and rested his bony chin in my curls. 'I don't want to go.'

'You'll be back here before you know it. It'll be quick.'

'Quicker than dying?'

'Nothing's quicker than dying.' Sherlock pulled away from me and held me by the shoulders. 'I don't know anyone with a resilience to poison, gas, or anyone of your age who can deduce the way you can. You are a remarkable little girl, Lily Dawn Holmes.'

'I'm fourteen, Uncle. And please don't say my full name. It's embarrassing. And by the way, please let John, Molly and Mrs Hudson look after you.' I thought for a moment. 'Especially Molly.' He laughed and kissed my cheek.

'You need to go. Ring me if you need anything.' I nodded and gave my Uncle one last hug and Jack one last kiss before getting into the limo. I wound down the window as the limo set off, and waved at everyone as they stood lined outside the flat and Speedy's. They waved back, all of the girl's, as well as Jack slightly, cried. I even saw Sherlock quickly glance at Molly. It was very quick, I wasn't even sure it happened for a moment. But then again, if Sherlock is capable of loving me and having a best friend, surely he's capable of having a girlfriend?

No, maybe not.

The limo drove around the corner, and the last thing I saw of Baker Street was the sign. I wound the window back up and took out my headphones, selecting some violin music to listen to on the way down to the Manor of doom.

'Lily. So nice to have you back for the summer. Your father requests to see you. He is in his study.' One of the footmen took my small suitcase out of the back of the limo, and I handed my maid, Alison, my iPod and headphones.

'Okay, thanks, Alison.' I began to walk from the limo to the front door on the stones that covered the massive driveway and into the doors.

'Your coat, Lily!' Alison shouted after me and I shrugged off my coat, letting it drop onto the stones. I entered the manor through the big oak doors, which I had only been through a few times in my entire life. I sighed and looked up at the intricate ceilings, quickly glancing to the coat rack. The name plaques were still there as normal: Sherrinford Charles Holmes, Violet Mary Holmes, Mycroft Sherrinford Holmes, Sherlock Scott Holmes, Charlotte Violet Crawley-Holmes, William Martin Crawley Holmes, Ryan William Crawley-Holmes and Lilith Dawn Holmes. I sighed at the family I barely knew. My Grandfather, Sherrinford, was always away helping to try and win the war in Afghanistan with techniques as he was too old to fight. Violet, my Grandmother, was always attending some lavish party in London. My Aunty, Charlotte and her husband, William, and their son, Ryan, lived in Cornwall, at the Crawley Manor.

I sighed and hoped that Ryan's dad didn't treat him as badly as mine did to me.

I climbed the stairs and went up to the second floor, finding Mycroft's study amongst the many rooms. I knocked on the door and his butler, Albert, opened the door.

'Miss Holmes. So glad to have you back for the summer. Please take a seat.' Albert stepped aside and I walked into the room, seeing my father sat in a chair behind his desk, writing up some report for the government. I spied the chair in front of the desk and sat down. 'A drink, Miss Holmes?' I shook my head at Albert and he smiled whilst pouring a cup of tea for my Dad and serving him a piece of cake. 'Any item of confectionary, Miss Holmes?'

'No, thank you, Albert.' He smiled once more and nodded, wheeling out the trolley with the teapot, cups and food on it.

'Welcome, Lilith.' I looked up from my lap to see Mycroft still looking down at his papers. 'I trust your stay at Baker Street was… fun?'

'More fun than I have here. At least I'm allowed outside there.' My dad smiled and rang a bell on his desk.

'You know why you're not allowed outside, Lilith.'

'Because you want to "protect" me from the world. That's what you say, but what's the real reason? Are you ashamed at the fact you have a daughter but your wife is dead?!'

Mycroft rose from his chair and completely ignored what I just said. 'You shall have dinner with me tonight and you can tell me about your time in London. Wear more presentable clothes than a hooded jumper, jeans and trainers.' Alison came through the study door and stood beside me. 'Alison, take Lilith to her room and help her unpack and choose a suitable piece of attire for tonight.'

'Yes, Mr Holmes.' Alison nodded her head and led me out of the study, following her down both flights of stairs and into the living room and through the fake section in the bookcase into my bedroom.

I looked around at it, seeing it hadn't changed a bit. It still had the nursery border on the walls, with pink painted either side of it. The bed was pushed up into the corner, the sheets with fairies on it. The furniture was grey, and the mirror still had stickers on it that I had put on it when I was younger and scared of dying in here. On the bookcase, there were the fairy tales at the bottom, Harry Potter and the other titles I had read at the top. I looked up at the shower head above the bathroom door, where the gas came out of and shuddered.

'Are you cold, Lily?' I shook my head and smiled at Alison. 'Shall we pick out your outfit for tonight?' I nodded and Alison opened my wardrobe and begun to unpack the clothes I had brought with me. 'I believe your father will probably want you to wear a dress. Did you bring back the ones you took to London?'

'No, I didn't think I'd need them here.' Alison rooted through the wardrobe and pulled out a full length teal dress made of chiffon.

'I'm not having dinner with the Prime Minister, Alison. Can't I just wear a skirt?'

'You are, and some of the other people from the government.' Alison registered the confused look on my face. 'Didn't your father say? The Prime Minister wanted to meet his friend's daughter and they needed to have a business meeting, so they're all coming round here in about an hour and half, so you need to have a shower…'

An hour and twenty minutes later, I was stood in my bedroom wearing the teal dress Alison had picked for me. It was a one shoulder dress, with a sequined section and a scarf that linked into the dress. I sighed as I looked into the mirror and saw Alison had made my foundation match my pale skin and she had straightened my hair so she would have been able to put it into a French knot.

'Problem, Lily?'

'No problem.' Alison smiled at her handy work and applied clear lip gloss to my lips and I slipped into small silver heels so the dress just graced the floor.

'I'll get Albert to take you to the front of the house.' I rolled my eyes as Alison called Albert and he came to open the bookcase.

'You look splendid, Lily.'

'Thank you, Albert.' I smiled at the eighty year old man and he led me to the front of the house, where my father was waiting in a dinner suit outside of the front doors. 'You will wait here with your father to greet the Prime Minister and his other colleagues and friends. I shall be in the dining room during the meal.' Albert bowed his head at me and left, leaving me with Mycroft just as a car began to roll up the drive.

'Why didn't you tell me about this before?'

'Well, quite clearly, you need to brush up on you deductive skills. I believe this is the Home Secretary. Just smile and shake their hand and introduce yourself. As Lilith. Not as "Lily"'. I sighed and greeted all of the guests, wishing at the very least that Sherlock, Jack, John or Molly were here with me. The Prime Minister came last, kissing my hand and introducing me to his wife who walked with me to the dining room.

'I love your dress. Where is it from?'

'I'm not sure. My maid bought for me. You see, I've been staying with my Uncle Sherlock in London for two months, and she bought it in my absence. I'll ask her after.' I smiled at Mrs Cameron and we carried on walking.

'Is it exciting living with Sherlock Holmes then?'

'Very. I'd come back from school and they'd be waiting in the flat to go on a case and they would take me with them. Once, we were in a warehouse, and Moriarty managed to poison me, and another time, he gassed Sherlock and John.'

'How dreadful, dear! But, I suppose that's the price you pay for living with me like that.' Mrs Cameron smiled and she sat down with me at the dining table. It carried on like that until everyone went home, random members of the cabinet asking me questions about Sherlock and John.

A week had passed, and I was locked in my room, on Thursday night, when Jack rang.

"Hey, Lily."

'Hi, Jack. How have you been?'

"Good. Been missing you though, so I've been around to the flat almost every day to talk with Sherlock. He reminds me so much of you. Just a bit more cruel."

'Just a bit more? I would have liked to have thought that he was a lot crueller than me!' Jack laughed.

"You know what I mean. Are you okay?"

'Apart from dying of boredom, I'm fine. And I had dinner with the prime minister last week, if you're interested. What's happening down in London?'

"Well, Kitty made me appear at the Believe in Sherlock Holmes meeting as a guest speaker and Nate asked out Kitty." I squealed with excitement.

'What did she say?!'

"Yes, of course. What else would she have said?" We both laughed and carried on with the conversation.

'How's your mum?'

"She's okay. She wants to know when you're coming round again, so she can make something special for us." I smiled against the mobile.

'Why does your mum like me so much?'

"I don't know. Probably because my past girlfriends have just gone out with me to get popular, and maybe she thinks… doesn't matter."

'Um… okay. How's everyone at Baker Street?'

"Mrs Hudson's back on full cleaning duty, and Lestrade and John are trying to get Sherlock to go out on a case, but he's moping around. He keeps on trying to tell everyone it's because his microscope isn't working properly; but we all know it's because he's missing you. Molly's been trying to feed him, but he just ends up sat in her lab at the morgue every day, staring out of the window. Why can't you come back sooner?"

'I didn't decide this. My Dad did. I'm sorry, Jack. I want to be in London just as much as you want me there. If Sherlock had fought hard enou-'

"Don't say that. He's fighting now. Everyday he's rang him at Parliament, the manor and at his apartment in London to try and get you back. You know, I was round at the flat the other day and Sherlock was watching the BBC's parliament channel. He had managed to ring Mycroft on his mobile without going through his secretaries. And he kept on ringing until your Dad answered to have an argument with your Uncle on live television. Do not say he isn't fighting hard enough for you!" Jack shouted at me down the phone and there was an awkward silence between us.

'And how was I supposed to know that?' I pressed the red phone and the call ended, throwing my mobile against the wall softly. It rung again several times, and Jack's picture flashed up from the floor. I began to cry into my pillow and listened to my ring tone five times before Jack gave up and my text alert noise came on. The noise stopped and I fell asleep, wearing jeans and a hoodie, my face and pillow still wet.

'Lily, wake up. Why aren't you in your pyjamas?' I woke up the next morning, Alison softly shaking me.

'Oh, I fell asleep.'

'Ah, okay. Your boyfriend, Jack, has been texting you all night. It says on your phone that you have fifty unread messages and twenty missed calls from him. Is everything alright between you two?'

'Perfectly fine.' I got out of bed and picked some clothes from my wardrobe, taking them into the bathroom to have a shower and get changed. When I came of the bathroom , Alison was sat on my bed, reading through my phone. 'What on earth are you doing?!'

'Nothing, Miss Holmes.' I snatched my mobile off her to see a message from Jack telling me how sorry he was for having a go at me.

'How dare you! These messages are private! Ring Albert now! I never want to see you again.' I went back into the bathroom and shut the door, taking my phone with me. I read all of the messages from Jack, and listened to the voice mail he had left, telling me he was sorry for shouting at me when I wouldn't know what was happening in London and that he loved me. I began to cry again, and somewhere in between starting and finishing reading the messages, Albert had come into the bathroom and looked at me.

'Is everything okay, Miss Holmes?' The old man smiled at me and I cried harder. Albert held me as I cried, the man who I remembered as several years younger, who would come and play outside with me, in the occasion I was allowed outside. 'Would you like to go for a walk and tell me what is wrong?' I nodded and another servant who I didn't know the name of came and opened the door to my room for us, and we walked around the grounds of the house, me telling Albert the ups and downs of my life.

'Well, I've never heard anything as exciting before. Surely, that's what you want? The excitement.'

'I do. But, like the way my Uncle has it. Not having the person you love fake hating you. I want to be like my Uncle, you know? Void of all feelings.'

'Your Uncle does feel things, Miss Holmes. He just doesn't express everything as freely as normal person would. I think he's afraid of getting hurt.' I raised an eyebrow at Albert. 'I have worked for your family ever since your grandfather and grandmother married, and your father would always tease your Uncle Sherlock and Aunty Charlotte for showing happiness, or anger, or sadness. It never bothered Mrs Crawley-Holmes, but it deeply annoyed her brother. He has always been trying to better your father, and by being void of all his feelings was a way of doing that.

'But he does feel things. He feels love. For you. Dr Watson. Mrs Hudson. I believe also for Miss Hooper, Mr Howell and Detective Inspector Lestrade. He also feels happiness, like when a murder is reported.' I laughed and linked arms with Albert. 'Sadness, when you are here and not in London. Anger, when Mr Howell broke your heart. Disgust, when your father gases you. Fear, when you almost died of poisoning. Trust, in you and John, and many others. Anticipation, when he is on the way to a murder scene. And surprise, when it turns out to be murder and not suicide. There are many others, Miss Holmes. But your Uncle is not void of feeling. He just doesn't show it.'

'I suppose you are right, Albert.' We sat down on a bench and stared out at the small lake.

'Do you feel those things, Miss Holmes?'

'Yes. I think my Uncle sees me as weak though.'

'No. He envies you for being able to share your feelings with everyone. Your Uncle cannot do that. You may think he is incapable of falling in love, but if he did, no matter how brave he is, and he couldn't never tell the person he's in love with that. However, you tell Mr Howell almost every day how much you love him. I believe it is envy he feels.' I nodded slowly and watched a black swan skim across the water's surface.

'When he lived here, which room was my Uncle's?'

'I'll show you.' Me and Albert spent the rest of the day exploring the manor, having a lot of fun in Sherlock's old room: marvelling at all of the pirate themed things in there. Eventually, Albert took me back to my room as my father would be home from work soon. I sighed, and after Albert left, I rung Jack and apologised.

"It should be me apologising. I shouldn't have shouted at you. I love you, Lily."

'I love you too, Jack.'

"I don't know how I'm going to survive five more weeks without seeing you."

'You have plenty of photos of me.'

"Seeing you in a photo isn't quite the same thing as seeing you in person. I need to go, I have my paper round in the morning. Please remember that I'm sorry and that I love you."

'I will, Jack. Goodnight.'

"Good night, Lily." We both hung up and I got changed, feeling happy.

The next day, at about three o'clock, I was sat reading a book in my room when I heard two people enter the room next to it.

'…you simply must come to the party tonight, dear.'

'I'm not sure, mother. I've got a lot of work to get through.' My dad and grandmother were next door, chatting away, at least one of them oblivious to the fact that I was here.

'You need a break, Mycroft. And I'm not asking you to stay until midnight. Just for a while.' I abandoned the book on my bed and began hammering at the wall where the door was meant to be.

'Grandma! Grandma!'

'Lily? Where are you?' I heard her violently turn her head around the room, as if to search for me.

'In the bookcase! Get me out of here please!'

'Just ignore her, mother. Lilith is probably outside the door or something.' I banged on the wall repeatedly, and I felt Violet knock back.

'She's in here, Mycroft! Help me get her out!' Violet began to pull books of the shelves, and then there was a loud bang and all movement stopped.

'Grandma?'

'She's unconscious.' I heard the familiar clicking of the button and then the hissing sound.

'Dad!' I banged on the wall, hoping my worst nightmare would stop.

'It's father. Goodbye, Lily.' I heard the living room door shut and I turned around to see the gas streaming out of the shower head. I dived for my phone and dialled Jack's number. He picked up after the second ring.

"Hey, Lily. Verdigris is your favourite colour, right?"

'Jack, listen. I haven't got long.'

"What are you talking about?"

'Gas. Listen.' I began to cough and held the phone away from my mouth. 'Mycroft knocked my grandma unconscious and has started the gas. It's Zyklon B. I'm going to die soon. Get Sherlock to ring Lestrade and find the nearest police squad out in the area. They won't be able to save me, but they can probably save Violet. Tell them my dead body is locked in the bookcase in the living room on the second floor.' I began coughing again and Jack waited to speak until I finished.

"Shut up, Lily. You are not going to die." I heard Jack's voice crack with tears and I felt my own well up in my eyes.

'Do as I say. Ring Lestrade. I love you, Jack.'

"Don't do this, Lily…"

'Tell me, Jack! Please, I'm begging you.'

"I love you, Lily. John, ring Lestrade!" I heard scuffling in the background and someone took the phone off Jack just as I fell to the floor, cutting the side of my head open on one of the bed posters as I went. "Lily, you are not going to die." My Uncle's voice came through the phone.

'Yes,' Cough. 'I am.' Cough. I began to feel blackness covering my eyes, and I struggled to stay conscious.

"Talk to me. About anything."

'With you,' Cough. 'Being a sociopath,' Cough. 'That won't be,' Cough. 'The easiest thing.' I began coughing full on and only just stopped to hear him what he said.

Sherlock laughed nervously. "In that case, I need to tell you something."

'Yeah?' I coughed a lot again.

He took a deep breath before continuing. 'I'm your f…' And the black mist descended.


	16. Chapter 16

CHAPTER 16-

It was hard to admit, but without Lily around, we were all seriously bored out of minds. Adam and the rest of my close friends were away on holiday, and Kitty was always with Nate, and Clive was always with Jess. My mum was working three different jobs to try and provide for us, Molly and Lestrade were permanently at work, and John had decided to quit his job at the surgery after his break up with Sarah, who was now currently trying to convince Sherlock to answer the cases being posted on his blog.

So, the three of us sat in the flat, trying to think up ways to get Lily back. I began to think about her too much: her smile, her laugh, her kiss, his touch, the way her hair smelt, her walk, her voice, her eye colour… I drifted off on the settee and remembered what Lily's favourite colour was: it was obviously verdigris, which was her and Sherlock's eye colour. Then I remembered complaining the first time I went to the flat about how plain her bedroom was. So it was settled: we were bored and painted Lily's room.

It had taken us a while to find the paint. How many D.I.Y shops sell the colour verdigris? We spent all morning looking for it, and the afternoon moving furniture and finding old clothes, so Sherlock ended up wearing some of John's tracky bottoms and a jumper, as the only clothes he tended to have were suits and pyjamas. And the odd fluorescent jacket.

We started painting that evening, and after we had done about half a wall each, Lily rung. I was so happy, maybe she had decided we could speak more than once a week until she got back. I quickly put the roller back in the tray and picked up after the second ring.

'Hey, Lily. Verdigris is your favourite colour, right?'

"Jack, listen. I haven't got long."

'What are you talking about?' I narrowed my eyes and Sherlock and John put down their paint brushes and came over to me so they hear the conversation.

"Gas. Listen." She started to cough and I winced slightly at the pain she must be in "Mycroft knocked my grandma unconscious and has started the gas. It's Zyklon B. I'm going to die soon. Get Sherlock to ring Lestrade and find the nearest police squad out in the area. They won't be able to save me, but they can probably save Violet. Tell them my dead body is locked in the bookcase in the living room on the second floor." She began coughing again and I waited to speak until she finished.

'Shut up, Lily. You are not going to die.' My voice cracked with tears at what Lily was telling me. Lily. Dead. Dying. None of those words belonged in the same sentence. I felt my fingers go slightly numb.

"Do as I say. Ring Lestrade. I love you, Jack."

'Don't do this, Lily…' I felt tears begin to fall down my face, Sherlock making me put the phone on speaker.

"Tell me, Jack! Please, I'm begging you."

I felt my heart broke as I spoke these words. 'I love you, Lily. John, ring Lestrade!' John ran to his bedroom to get his phone, hearing him urgently talking to Greg. Sherlock took the phone off me and I began pacing back and forth in the bedroom. 'Lily, you are not going to die.' Sherlock spoke clearly into the phone, punctuating every syllable.

"Yes I am." I could hear Lily coughing several times in the background.

'Talk to me. About anything.'

"With you being a sociopath that won't be the easiest thing." Lily began having a full on coughing fit and the tears fell down my face faster.

Sherlock laughed nervously. 'In that case, I need to tell you something.'

"Yeah?" Lily coughed again and I felt her smile slightly against the phone.

Sherlock took a deep breath before continuing. 'I'm your father.' Lily didn't reply. Had he shocked her into silence or something? 'Lily?' No reply. No cough. She was unconscious. John ran through, his phone gripped tightly in his hand.

'Greg's getting a team sent there straight away. He said to quickly get changed and he'll come and pick us up and take us down to Lily.'

Lestrade came as fast as he could, and he drove as quickly as he could down towards Hampshire, where Holmes Manor. I swear the next hour and a half was the longest of my life. I sat in the front with Greg, occasionally drumming my fingers on my knee, and if I got really distracted, on top of the gear stick, not moving until Greg needed to change the gear. I ended up nearly breaking the radio for lack of things to do. When we eventually arrived at the hospital where Lily and her grandmother had been taken, the secretary said that we couldn't see Lily, due to the gas poisoning. We could, however, see Violet.

A nurse led us to a secluded room upstairs with a space for another bed, where Sherlock's mother was. Her head was laid against the pillow, her hair lying thin and brown with hints of silver in it. Regardless of that and the bandage wrapped around her head, she smiled at Sherlock when he entered the room.

'Sherlock.'

'Mother.' Sherlock walked over and lightly hugged his mother, who slightly winced but still smiled when he touched her. Me, John and Greg all stood at the back of the room, looking awkwardly around.

'Introduce me to your friends.' We all stepped forwards slightly, all of us wondering what Sherlock's mother would be like compared to both of her sons and her granddaughter. 'I don't bite.' We stepped forwards more until we were all stood around her bed.

'Mum, this is John, my flatmate.' Sherlock gestured towards his blogger, John smiling proudly.

'Pleased to meet you, Mrs Holmes.'

'Oh please, call me Violet. And I'm so glad to finally meet you. I've heard a great deal about you.'

'This is Lestrade, or Greg to everyone else. He works as a Detective Inspector at Scotland Yard in the murder division.'

'I've heard a lot about you, Violet.'

'All good, I hope.' Violet turned to look at me and stared at me the way Mrs Hudson does. 'And who is this dashing young man you've brought with you, Sherlock?' I blushed slightly and looked at the floor.

'This is Jack, Lily's boyfriend.' Violet sat up slightly and she smiled softly at me.

'And I never thought your daughter could feel like that about someone with the way you feel towards the opposite sex.'

'That's not strictly true, mother…' Sherlock murmured.

'Oh, tell all, son.'

'No thanks.' She laughed and told us all to pull up a chair, asking us all questions about our lives: Sherlock and Lestrade's on cases, John's on Afghanistan, mine on how I fell for Lily.

'Don't worry, I won't ask you about your first kiss. I'll save that question for Lily.' We all smiled nervously, at the presumption Lily wasn't going to die. Sherlock's text alert went off and he took out his mobile. 'You're supposed to have that turned off.'

'Who cares? It's Molly. She says that she and Mrs Hudson are almost here.' Sherlock smiled and so did his mother.

'That's good then. How is Lily?'

'We're not sure. We weren't allowed to see her before.'

'I'm sure you will soon.' An awkward silence filled the room and we all twiddled with our thumbs, the only thing interesting happening was a nurse coming in to check on Violet. Ten minutes later, the door to the room opened and we all turned to see who it was: hopefully a doctor come to tell us Lily was okay.

'Sherlock?'

Mrs Hudson was stood in front of the door and as soon as she saw the distressed state Violet was in, she ran straight over and began making sure she was okay, as if they had met before.

'Do they know each other?' I whispered to Greg as one old woman fussed over the woman.

'Of course. Do you really think that woman would let her son live with just anyone?'

'She had never met John before.'

'Sherlock is not actually six. He does occasionally get to make some life decisions of his own.' John butted in and we both nodded, hoping he wouldn't snap at us again. 'Where's Molly?' We all looked around and Mrs Hudson was about to speak, but the door opened again before she could.

'Sherlock!' Molly's high pitched voice entered the room and Sherlock immediately got up and ran to go and hug her. Within a couple of seconds, Molly's small form had vanished and it just looked like Sherlock was stood by the doors on his own. 'Put me down! I want to see how your mother is.' Sherlock put Molly back on the floor and she walked over to the bed and sat in Sherlock's chair so she was the closest to his mother.

'I'm Molly Hooper, Mrs Holmes. I work at the morgue that Sherlock visits.'

'Ah. You're Molly. Were you the one who took him in after his apparent death?' Molly smiled and nodded. 'Well thank you. You've made him a slightly better person. Maybe he should stay with you more often. And please, call me Violet.'

They both began talking with Mrs Hudson about random woman stuff that didn't really matter to any of us, but we listened regardless, realising that they used euphemisms for certain "lady things" that apparently didn't concern us men. But from the way Sherlock stood behind Molly with his nose slightly scrunched told me he had deduced what they were talking about and really wished he hadn't. I began laughing and they all stared at me. 'Nothing.' I said, but carried on laughing anyway, and soon everyone joined in, momentarily forgetting about Lily until a doctor walked in.

'Errm, excuse me.' We all stopped laughing and turned to face the doctor. I glanced sideways at Sherlock to see he was trying to deduce what the doctor was going to tell us. 'I just thought you would like to know that Miss Holmes is stable, but in a coma. We don't know when she'll wake up. But you can go and see her.' The doctor stood by the door, ready to take us and Sherlock bounded forward but remembered his mother and turned around.

'I'll be fine. Just tell her I'm sorry.'

Sherlock nodded and all seven of us followed the doctor out of the room and to a room full of other patients in the main A & E department at the hospital. Lily was at the back of the room in the middle, her hair so perfectly splayed out across the pillow. A blue cotton blanket was pulled over her, with wires and tubes going in and out of her; a worse version of what Sherlock and John looked like the other month when they had been gassed. I took one of her hands, feeling that she was as cold as ice.

'She's freezing.'

'She's as cold as you look.' Sherlock, who was grasping her other hand gently, was referring to the colour of my skin: it never got tanned, not even in the summer months. It stayed as white as the moon and the clouds.

I shrugged it off and kissed Lily's forehead, giving her some warmth. 'Is there any way we could get her moved into the same room as Violet so we don't have to run back and forth between them all of the time?' John looked across at me, then went to go and look at the information about Lily on the clipboard on the bottom of the bed.

'Not just yet. Wait one more day, and then I'll have a word with her doctor. Chances are that I'd be a higher grade doctor than them because of the army, so I should be able to get her moved, but I don't think she's stable enough to be moved where there aren't a lot of doctors running around.'

'When do you think she'll be awake?'

'Hard to say. I don't know anyone who's been gassed with zyklon B before. Between three days to two weeks I'd say. But I could be wrong. I don't know if…' John trailed off. I took that to mean Lily might never wake up.

Molly carried on the conversation to stop us from talking about the possibility of Lily dying. 'But I thought Lily was immune to gas?'

'Not this one. Mycroft built up the gas strength gradually, so she would be immune to the other ones, but this gas is far too strong for her to be immune to. For anyone to be immune to, I think.'

The question hung in the air between all of us for the next day. We took it in turns of travelling the hour and a half journey back and forth between Hampshire and London, to pick up clothes and money so we could stay at the hospital. Mrs Hudson and Lestrade stayed in London; Lestrade as he had to go back to work, Mrs Hudson who was making sure that the flat would stay in its usual, clean state. And of course put out the bins. Molly went back occasionally, only to go work, but she said she was owed a lot of time off, and Mary, the nurse who helped to treat Sherlock and John when they were gassed, said she would help out in the morgue on her behalf, even though it wasn't really her area.

Me, Sherlock and John stayed at the hospital all of the time, rarely changing clothes and sleeping in the chairs around Lily's bed. Like John said, after a day, we had managed to get her moved into the same room as Violet. That's when the social worker came.

John was asleep, in a chair at the foot of Lily's bed. Violet was sat on the edge of her bed, her wound looking much better, but the doctors were keeping her in for observation. Me and Sherlock were sat in two chairs next to Lily's bed, a spare chair on Sherlock's side for where Molly sat. There were two police officers outside of the door, making sure no one entered the room who wasn't supposed to be there; including Moriarty and Mycroft.

Mrs Hudson had rang to tell us that no pictures or anything suspicious had been delivered to the flat, and Lestrade hadn't rung with any information on Moriarty. Mycroft, however, hadn't been to work. Or back to the manor or his apartment he sometimes used in London. Not even the Diogenes Club. A full police search had been launched looking for him, but nothing had come up.

Anyway, the doctor entered with a social worker. She was wearing a green dress and a yellow cardigan with sandal, reminding me of something I had watched on television when I was younger.

'Mr Holmes, this is Myra Payne. She is social worker and wants to talk to you about Lily's care once she has been discharged from hospital.' Sherlock nodded and she sat down in Molly's chair, making him wince slightly.

'I've heard a lot about you, Mr Holmes.' Sherlock smiled and shook her hand as the doctor left. 'Let's get straight down to business then. Mr Mycroft Holmes will no longer be able to look after his daughter, and the only close family relations after him, are you, Lily's Uncle, Mr and Mrs Holmes, her grandparent, and Mr and Mrs Crawley-Holmes, her other Aunt and Uncle who live with her cousin. I've been told that she's been living with you recently.'

'That's correct, yes.'

'And would you still want your niece living with you?'

'Definitely. I love having her around, she goes to school in the area, her friends are in the area as well as her boyfriend.' Sherlock motioned to me and I smiled.

'Well, I'll have to run some checks on you and the people you live with and the people who are around there a lot.'

'I live with my flatmate, John,' Who, as if on cue, managed to snore loudly. 'and my land lady, Mrs Hudson, who's currently in London.'

'John's last name?'

'Watson. Dr John Watson. Hamish is his middle name if needed.'

'And your landlady's first name?'

'Martha. Also, round there often is Miss Molly Hooper and Gregory Lestrade. Molly works at St Barts hospital and Lestrade works in the murder division at Scotland Yard. They come round almost all of the time, so you probably want to interview them too. And maybe Jack as well.' Sherlock gestured to me once more and she nodded, scribbling it all down quickly in a notepad.

'I'll be around again soon, to interview John and Jack, and of course ask Lily if she wants to move in with you once she's woken up. I'll also have to do a full sweep of your flat to make sure there's nothing dangerous in there. I'll be seeing you soon, Mr Holmes.' Myra shook his hand once more and left the room, smiling at me and Violet.

'Do you really want Lily living with you?'

Sherlock took his eyes off the door and looked across to Violet. 'Of course I do. She's my daughter, even if she doesn't know that.' Sherlock stroked Lily's hand and smiled at her sleeping form.

'I never thought, not in million years, that you could be like this.' I looked up at Violet and saw tears in her eyes. 'Who was this person that you said I would be surprised about? This person that you like?'

'No one, mother.' The door opened and in came Molly, still wearing her lab coat from work. Open her appearance, Sherlock stopped stroking Lily's hand and stood up.

'Work was so busy today! I had to examine three dead bodies.' Molly collapsed into her chair and ran her fingers through her hair. 'If they don't get claimed, do you want me to set aside you some parts and put them in the freezer for you?'

'Yes, thank you.' Sherlock sat down and Molly shrugged off her lab coat, throwing it onto the end of Lily's bed.

'Does anyone want a drink?' I stood up and smoothed down my t-shirt.

'Could you get my some water, Jack?' I nodded to Molly's request and left the room to go out to the filter down the corridor. One of the security guards followed me to make sure no one hurt me, leaning against the wall as I filled up a plastic cup of water for Molly.

'Do you and your colleague want some water?' I looked up at the burly man and he shook his head.

'No, you're alright. We change shift in ten minutes.' I nodded and took the water back to Lily and Violet's room, to find Molly with her head in Sherlock's lap, asleep. Sherlock was running his fingers through Molly's long, brown waves, with a philosophical look on his face. I laughed quietly and put Molly's drink down on the table beside Lily's bed and sat back down once more.

'What's so funny?' Sherlock glanced over his shoulder at me, still running his slender fingers through Molly's hair.

'Well… just, do you run your fingers through John's hair when you think?'

'John's hair isn't long.'

'Lily's then.'

'Don't be stupid.'

'Well it's obvious then.' Sherlock stopped moving his fingers and narrowed his eyes.

'What is?'

'You. Molly. Lily told me that Molly likes you, and it's blatantly obvious from the way Molly acts all of the time. Then this person you were going to tell Violet about is Molly because of what you're doing now and other things. Like when she hurt herself in the warehouse, you were worried, and you two always argue about who will make Lily tea and who will look after her, like you're her parents. Face facts Sherlock, you have a crush on Molly.' Sherlock blushed slightly and carried on sifting his fingers through Molly's hair.

'Molly? She's a bit quiet for you, Sherlock.'

'And this coming from the person telling me I should like people for who they are and not try to change them at the age of seven.'

'I just didn't think she'd be your type.'

'Mum, you have no idea what my type is! Neither do I!' Sherlock shouted and Molly stirred in her sleep, her head lolling about slightly on Sherlock's knee. John woke up with a start.

'What have I missed?'

'A social worker will be coming around to interview you soon and my son has a crush on Molly.'

'To the former, that's understandable. To the latter, I know. He told me ages ago. I am his best friend, after all. We agreed to never keep secrets from each other again unless it was really necessary. And this isn't necessary, but I'm not going to tell her. That's for Sherlock to do. If he's brave enough to throw himself off a building, he's certainly brave enough to tell a woman that he loves her.'

I laughed. 'I don't think even Sherlock is brave enough to do that.' Sherlock gave me evils and carried on messing with Molly's hair, eventually plating it. 'Does she know you're doing that?'

'No. But it's helping me think.' I stared at him and he shook his head. 'I don't expect you to understand.' And I didn't.

Five days later, I was sat by Lily's beside once more. Violet was sat opposite me on a chair wearing her normal clothes since she had been discharged from the hospital. Sherlock and John were in the hospital canteen bringing back some lunch for us all. Lestrade, Mrs Hudson, Molly and her friend Mary Morstan were making their way up to Hampshire, since they had all got the weekend free from arrangements and work. Violet was reading a book and I was stroking Lily's hand.

'Do you love her?'

I looked up at Lily's grandmother to see that she was peering over her glasses at me, Jane Eyre open on her knee. 'Yes. Why? Am I not worthy of a member of the Holmes family? Is that why you don't approve of Sherlock liking Molly?'

'I didn't say that.'

'You were implying it though.'

'Shut up, you two…' Lily's hand begun to mover beneath mine and we both jumped up.

'Lily?!'

'What happened?' Lily opened her eyes slowly and swallowed. 'Ugh, water.' Violet ran to the filter and got a cup for her, and Lily drank it in several gulps. 'So what happened?'

'Your dad poisoned you with zyklon B and knocked out your grandmother.'

'Mycroft? Has he been arrested.'

'They can't find him, dear.' Violet took Lily's other hand and she sat up in the hospital bed.

'Are you okay, grandma?'

'I'm fine. It was you we were all concerned about. You've been in a coma for about a week.' Lily opened her mouth to speak, but was shocked at to how long she'd been asleep for.

'Jack, I'm sorry… that phone call…'

'It's fine. Really.' I hugged Lily softly and kissed her.

'Where's Sherlock? And John and Molly? And everyone else?'

'They'll be here soon. Sherlock and John are in the canteen getting food, and everyone else is on their way up here, they'll only be about twenty minutes away.' Lily nodded and settled back in the bed, asking me and Violet about random things until her Uncle and John came back.

'Lily?!' Sherlock and John both rushed into the room mid-conversation with one another as soon as they saw that Lily was awake. They placed the two trays of food on the floor and they both hugged her powerfully.

'Please don't kill me.' The two grown men let go of her and sat back into their chairs, John next to me, Sherlock next to Violet.

'Do you feel okay?'

'Do I feel okay? More like do you feel okay. I thought you said you'd never fall in love.'

'I errr haven't fallen in love.'

'What's this about Molly then?' John got up to retrieve the trays of food, handing out everyone's lunch whilst Lily sipped another cup of water.

'That's not necessarily love. I just happen to like her a lot.'

'More than The Woman?' John looked towards his flatmate and Sherlock scowled at him.

'I didn't actually like her. I just had a lot of respect for her.'

Twenty minutes later, Molly, Mrs Hudson, Lestrade and Mary came walking down the corridor, running when they saw through the window that Lily was awake. 'Are you okay?' They all asked her in unison, and me and Sherlock proudly held each of her hands.

'I'm fine. Now, John, grow some balls and talk to Mary. Everyone else, do whatever. Jack, sit here.' Lily pointed weakly to the chair even nearer to her and I obeyed, as did everyone else; John and Mary sat awkwardly in the corner chatting and laughing, while Sherlock and Molly did the same in the other corner. Lestrade went to go and talk to the security guards outside the room and Mrs Hudson sat with Violet by the bed.

'I'm really happy that you're okay.'

'I know you are.' I took Lily's hand and squeezed it. 'How's your mum?'

'You woke up from an almost week long coma just over half an hour ago, and you want to talk about my mum?' Lily nodded slowly and smiled like a seven year old at me, like the one she pulled when we first met. 'She's fine and wants to come down and see you, but can't. She's working to try and provide for us. I hardly see her. I've seen more of Sherlock and John over the summer than I've seen of my mum.'

'How are Kitty and Clive?'

'I'm pretty sure that Clive might get the kissing disease thing soon, and Nate asked out Kitty the other day.'

'He's got more bravery than my Uncle then.' We looked over to where Sherlock and Molly were sat, laughing and talking like that way we did. 'Mrs Hudson says he smiles more because of me, but it's because of Molly too.' I looked at Lily and she was smiling at her Uncle and Molly, looking happy together, even if they weren't actually together.

'Would it make you happy if they were together?'

'Yes, but I don't mind all the same. It would still be like living in a big family. I have close friends and a brilliant boyfriend. An Uncle who acts like a Dad, and his flatmate acts like and Uncle and my big brother. Molly acts like a cross between my mum, and older sister and an aunty. Mrs Hudson is like another Grandma and Lestrade is like an Uncle who thinks he's funny but isn't really.' I laughed and looked at everyone in the room. 'Are you glad that you decided to be friends with me on the first day? You could have just walked off, you know. Passed me off as a weirdo and not have endured everything that's happened.'

'As long as I get to see you alive and well at the end of it all, I really don't care. I would do anything for you, Lily, a thousand times over.'

'The Kite Runner by Khaled Hossieni. It was on your bookshelf.' I nodded. 'Have you ever read Harry Potter?' I shook my head. 'How can you have read books like Great Expectations and The Mayor of Canterbury, but not a single Harry Potter book?'

'I just haven't.' I shrugged and I stroked the side of Lily's face and she leaned into my touch. 'I love you, you know.'

'I know. And you know l love you too, right? Because I still feel really bad for saying that thing over the phone to you when I was getting gas-'

'Lily, it's fine. You didn't know what was going to happen. You could have died and it was understandable that you wanted to be hear me say that one more time.' She nodded and I hugged her softly, as she was still very weak.

'Have they found Mycroft yet?'

'No. They haven't found any trace of him whatsoever. Your Uncle's probably wanting more security protection around you then, with two mad men on the loose.'

'Nothing on Moriarty either then?' I shook my head and she sighed. 'Can I have so more water?' I nodded and left the room, Lestrade following me as I went to the water filter and a doctor went into Lily's room.

'Is there anything on Mycroft or Moriarty yet?' Lestrade shook his head.

'No. But I don't have enough men to keep on trailing all of you around everyone. We're going to have to put up security cameras: we'll put some on Baker Street, at your school, at St. Bart's, Molly's flat and wherever John finds his next job. We'll put them outside your mum's flat too, wherever it is that your mum works in case someone tries to attack her. We'll put them by Violet's house and get connected up to the security cameras in Holmes Manor just in case Mycroft tries to go there. And there's countless other places.'

'That's going to cost a lot.'

'As long as Sherlock Holmes and his big, jumbled up family is safe, I don't care. If Lily or John died, or maybe Molly or Mrs Hudson, he wouldn't help us with anymore cases. As long as everyone's safe, I don't care how much this is going to cost the government. Besides, I don't like the Prime Minister.'

'Fair enough.' I prepared the water and went back to Lily's room, Lestrade staying outside with the security guards.

'… you in for another few days for observation, Miss Holmes. Also, a social worker will be coming to visit you about your living arrangements. I do believe your Uncle and his flatmate have volunteered to look after you.' Lily nodded at the doctor and I handed her the water. 'We'll start getting you back on normal foods, and you'll have regular blood tests to see how much gas there still is in you. Other than that, you can go home in three days.' The doctor smiled and left, Lily looking a little sad as he did.

'Lily, you don't have to live with me if you don't want to. I just though-' Sherlock immediately left his conversation with Molly and rushed over to Lily's bed side.

'Uncle, it's fine. I do want to live with you, it's just when he said home, I've never really belonged anywhere until now. I'd love to live with you and John.' Sherlock smiled and hugged his daughter, everyone else in the room smiling.

'Right, John. Let's go.'

'Uncle?'

'Sherlock?' Lily and John both looked up at him as he started to put his trench coat and scarf on.

'We now know everything's okay, so we need to go and get Lily's things moved over and get the flat ready.' John regretfully looked at Mary but she smiled softly at him and he reached for his coat.

'But the social worker hasn't interviewed me yet.'

'And are you going to say no? She's interviewed everyone else and inspected the flat, and as far as she's concerned, you're already living at Baker Street. So we'll go to the manor and get the rest of your things, take it down to London and leave them in your bedroom and finish the preparations. Ready, John?'

'I hate you.'

'You can ask Mary on a date some other time. Lestrade!' Sherlock shouted as John turned red and Mary blushed.

'What?' Lestrade poked his head around the door, smiling at Lily.

'Me and John need driving to the manor then back to London and you're the one with the car. Let's go.' Sherlock, John and Lestrade left the room and walked down the corridor and they all walked down the corridor and left.

'Mary! You and John!' Molly and Lily squealed and Molly and Mary both ran over to the bed and spoke about it in an excited high pitched voice. I quickly got up and played on my phone, looking at the two very different groups of females: one squealing with happiness, the other talking in hushed tones.

I will never understand women.


	17. Chapter 17

CHAPTER 17-

On the day I was to go home, it seemed to take forever for Sherlock and John to get to the hospital to pick me up.

'They'll be here soon.' Jack squeezed my hand and I nodded and lent against him, still sat on the edge of the bed I had been led in for two weeks now. It was seven o'clock at night, and wearing ordinary clothes compared to my hospital gown, it certainly didn't feel right.

'What were those preparations they were talking about a few days ago?'

'Can't you deduce what Sherlock and John were talking about?' Jack smirked at me, with a twinkle in his eyes.

'I was gassed with zyklon B about two weeks ago. I am not up to deducing.' I playfully wacked Jack's arm and he put it around my shoulders.

'You'll have to wait and see until you get home.'

'That sounds strange. Home. Holmes Manor was never really my home and now my cousin and his parents are moving in there.'

'Will you visit them?'

'Of course I will. My Aunty, my other Uncle and my cousin were some of the only people I was allowed to see and I'm quite good friends with all of the servants.' The door opened and Sherlock and John were stood there smiling.

'Ready to go home, Lily?'

'Definitely.' Jack picked up my bag with a few clothes and books in and we walked out to the hospital car park to find Lestrade's car.

'Doesn't Lestrade need it?'

'He said he'll use a police car today.' We all climbed into the car: me and Jack in the back, Sherlock and John in the front.

'Are you seriously letting Sherlock drive, John?'

'I let him drive me into a military base, so yes Jack, I am letting him drive me home.' We all laughed as John turned up the radio and we listened to whatever was playing for the hour and a half drive back down to London.

We got home at about half nine o'clock and Sherlock and John went to go and buy some pizza whilst Jack led me upstairs and helped to unpack some of things my now flatmates had brought with them from Holmes Manor.

'Verdigris!' I smiled as I entered my bedroom and looked around in awe at the colourful walls. 'You're clearly a good listener, Jack.' I kissed him on the cheek and we began to unpack the two boxes. 'What's with all of the jigsaws?'

'It's what I had to do for fun.'

'Lily, some of these jigsaws have five thousand pieces.'

'What can I say, I'm brilliant at them.' I unpacked the other few items I had, mostly books and hoodies that I didn't think that I'd need, and the few things that I took back with me to the Manor during the summer, including my mum's pink bracelet. I slid it onto my wrist as soon as I saw it and put everything else away in the wardrobe and or a shelf. 'Let's go downstairs then.'

'No! Wait!' Jack ran to my bedroom door and lent against it so I couldn't get out. 'Not yet.'

'And why not?'

'Because… just not.' Jack bit his lip and I took his hands in my own.

'But I'm your girlfriend. You have to tell me.' I stood on my tiptoes so I was almost as tall as him, but he turned his face away from me and I giggled. 'Please.' He shook his head and switched to the voice I had when I first came to London and made my eyes go wide. 'Pleasssseeee.' I kissed him and he tried to push me back with his hands but failed and kissed me back. I reached behind him to grab the door handle, but caught my hand before I could open it.

'Don't be so impatient and wait. I'll tell you when you can go down, and it's not like you're going to have to wait forever.' 2 minutes later, Jack's phone buzzed and he took it out of the pocket of his jeans. 'We can go down now.'

'This better be good.' Jack took my hand and led me down the stairs into the dark living room: I couldn't see anything. 'Jack…' I squeezed his hand tighter and then the lights clicked on and almost everyone I knew was stood in the flat: Sherlock, John, Molly, Lestrade, Mrs Hudson, Donovan, Anderson, Mary, Grandma, Mrs Howell, Kitty, Clive, Jessamine, Nate, Adam, some other of my friends from school and a few of the homeless network and Speedy's staff who I knew quite well.

'Surprise!' I put a hand to my mouth as they all shouted and I smiled.

'Told you it was worth waiting for.' I kissed Jack on the cheek and went to go and talk to everyone as Lestrade pressed play on the CD player and Mrs Hudson began to walk around the room, offering a bowl of crisps.

'Where have you five been all summer?'

'More like where have you been all summer?' I looked at Adam and the rest of them to find them smiling. 'Don't worry, we know.' I smacked Jack's best friend in the stomach and went to go and sit on the settee with Kitty and Jess.

'We're sorry we couldn't come up and see you. Even though our parents let us believe in your Uncle, they still kind of prefer us to not believe in him. And when they found out that we're friends with his niece…'

'Let's just say, you won't be sleeping over at our houses anytime soon. They were hard pushed to even let us come here tonight.'

'It's okay. I understand. Not everyone believes his innocence yet.' I looked over at Sherlock who was holding a plastic cup in his hand and laughing with John. I got up and spoke with other people, including Jack's mum.

'Lily! How are you?'

'Fine, Stacey. Jack said you were always working, how could you make it tonight?'

'I was owed some time off, and besides, you're the second person to make my son truly happy.'

'Oh. Who was the first?' I knew Jack had had two girlfriends previously, both in year 8, but they had both been brief. Not nearly long enough to make him happy, compared to the two and a half months we had been together for.

'His best friend, Adam. He was the first person to accept Jack when we first moved to London from Ireland. Everyone teased him at his other schools because they knew I was an alcoholic and that we didn't have a lot of money. When he started at Jonah Duckworth Academy, no one knew and he became friends with Adam and he eventually told him, but Adam didn't care, and they've been best friends ever since. You're the only girl to make him happy though, even before you got together.'

I smiled at Stacey and prepared to ask her a question that had been playing on my mind for quite a while now. 'I hope you don't mind me asking, but who's Jack's father?'

'It was when we lived back in Ireland, but we split up and me and Jack moved to London. Jack was only about four at the time. I don't remember him that well now, but he had black hair. And I only remember that because Jack's hair is black too. Sorry I can't help you, but I don't think that Jack would remember much about him. I have a picture of him somewhere. Ask me to show it you when you next come round to the flat.'

I nodded and smiled and continued to move around the room talking to people attending my welcome home party, eventually ending up with Jack.

'You were having a bit of an in depth conversation with my mum before.'

'We were talking about your dad.' I finished off my drink and put the empty plastic cup down on the study desk.

'Oh. What did she say?' Jack sipped at the J2O still in his cup, looking slightly worried.

'Nothing much. She doesn't really remember him that much because of how long ago it was. She just remembers that he had black hair like you.' Jack nodded and went quiet. 'What's wrong?' I stroked his arm and he looked at me over the rim of his cup.

'Well, she's never really spoken about him before. All I know is he's Irish. And now he has black hair.'

'She says she has a picture of him somewhere in the flat.' Jack almost choked on his drink and slammed it down on the study desk, not quite having the effect he wanted due to the fact it was plastic and there was loud music playing and other people talking and laughing.

'She never told me…' Jack looked over at where Lestrade was talking to Stacey by the fireplace and he began to walk over.

'No, Jack. I've been home for just over three hours and I don't want an argument. Please. Save it for tomorrow.' Jack clenched and unclenched his jaw and took my hand and led my through to kitchen to see Mrs Hudson cleaning out the fridge and washing plates. Jack sighed and pulled me through to Sherlock's bedroom, shutting the door behind me.

'Why has she never told me these things about my dad before?' Jack sat down on the bed with his head in his hands.

'I'm sure she meant to, but maybe she's never felt comfortable about it before.' Jack nodded and I sat down next to him. 'It'll be alright. Don't tell her I've said anything, just ask her nicely in a few weeks time and ask her to show you the picture she mentioned.' He nodded once more and lent his head against my shoulder.

'You're brilliant, you know.'

'Of course I know. I am Sherlock Holmes' niece after all.' We laughed and Jack kissed me, putting his arms around me. After a few seconds, the music in the living room stopped and no one spoke. We pulled away looking at each other with wide eyes, wondering what had happened.

'This doesn't sound like part of the surprise.'

'It's not.' We stood up and went through to the living room, to see everyone, especially Sherlock, staring at the door that led up from the stairs. Me and Jack both looked towards the door, and I recognised the person stood there straight away from a file I once saw on Mycroft's computer.

It was Irene Adler.


	18. Chapter 18

CHAPTER 18-

'Is there anyone else you want to tell me about? Perhaps now you've helped Mycroft fake his death too?!'

'Why would I help Mycroft? I hate him!'

'Well I thought you hated Irene too, but she's currently having a shower!'

As soon as Irene arrived, the party finished. Everyone went home, leaving me, Sherlock, John, Mrs Hudson and Irene Adler. I was sat on the settee fiddling with a green cocktail umbrella and Mrs Hudson was wandering around the flat picking up bits of food and plastic cups. Sherlock and John were stood in the middle of the room shouting at one another, with the faint sound of water running in the background of it all.

'That doesn't change the fact that I have a lot of respect for her!' The water stopped running and John threw up his hands and went up the stairs to go to bed. My Uncle huffed and sat down in his chair, hands in his thinking mode. Mrs Hudson took the umbrella off me and went downstairs just as Irene came through to the living room, wearing Sherlock's dressing gown.

'Very sweet that you and John were arguing about me.' Sherlock shifted slightly in his chair but didn't say anything or look at her. She smirked and turned to look at me, smiling smugly. 'And who's this?' Irene began to saunter over to the settee, hips swaying.

'Leave her alone.' Sherlock stood up and walked in front of me. 'Mrs Hudson has unlocked two-two-one-C for you to stay in. I'll be locking this door, and I know the floor above this doesn't have a door, but if you dare invade Lily or John's privacy, you will be sorry.' Irene left the room swiftly and the tension in my Uncle's shoulders went. 'Go to bed, Lily. School starts in a day.'

I bit my lip before sliding off the leather and going upstairs to spend my first night at my new home.

'She was wandering around her flat naked? In front of Sherlock and John?'

The next day, I was sat with Jack on the settee in 221B and I was explaining to him who Irene was. 'Yeah. It's how she wanted to make an impression on my Uncle. But she tried too hard.' Jack raised his eyebrows at me then nodded.

'She sounds… strange.'

'And we're friends with completely normal people.' Jack laughed and hit me with the union jack cushion that was behind him. 'Oh, you did not.'

'Oh, I did.' He grinned and I took the cushion that I was sat on and hit him back. We stood up on the settee and began to hit each other, falling around and laughing, only stopping when Irene sauntered in, sitting in Sherlock's chair with her feet over his arm rest and watching Jack very carefully.

'And who are you?' Irene's eyes were wide, filled with lust as she looked at Jack.

'Errm, Jack. Lily's boyfriend.'

'Well, I'm sure she won't mind… It's not like that little angel will give you what you want anytime soon.'

'What are you talking about?' I grabbed Jack's hand and squeezed it as tight as I could as Irene got up from my Uncle's chair and was almost touching noses with my boyfriend. 'I don't want anything from Lily. I love her.'

'That's what they all say.' On the spur of the moment, I reached out and slapped Irene as hard as I could, Sherlock and John walking into the living room at the same time.

'What the hell is going on here?'

'Your delightful niece just slapped me, obviously, Sherlock.'

Oh, I hate this woman! 'Well, your incredibly delightful Woman just tried to seduce my boyfriend.' Irene stepped away at the tone of venom in my voice just as the doorbell rang.

'Look, we have a client. Lily and Jack upstairs, Irene in my room.'

'I am NOT spending another minute in the same building as her.' I grabbed my coat from the back of the door and dragged Jack out of the flat with me, letting in the client as I went. I began walking fast down the street, not noticing that I was still holding Jack's hand very tightly.

'Lily, stop.' I stopped walking, but began glaring straight in front of me. 'We'll go to mine, okay?' I nodded and we got on and off the underground in silence, and sat in Jack's bedroom awkwardly when we eventually arrived.

'What are you so angry about?'

'Well, Irene, who's a professional by the way, just tried to seduce you.'

'You don't seem to care when Becky tries to flirt with me at school.'

'That's different…' I put my hands on my hips and began pacing the floor in front of the bed where Jack was sat.

'How?'

'Becky's a cow and is incredibly ugly.'

'And Irene's not a cow?' Jack stood up and put his hands around my waist and I stopped moving.

'Well, she is, but she's not ugly.'

Jack sighed and laughed quietly under his breath. 'Lily. We had this conversation before you went to Holmes Manor. I love you with all of my heart, and as Claudio once said In Much Ado About Nothing, "In mine eye she is the sweetest lady that I ever looked on."'

'Meaning?'

'Not only is she the most beautiful girl I have seen, she is the most beautiful girl in the entire world.' I smiled and hugged Jack.

'Do me a favour?'

'Mmmm?'

'Never let Twilight turn your ideas about what a girl likes to mush.'

'I don't plan on reading them anytime soon.' Jack kissed my forehead and stroked my long curls. 'Do you want to stay with me today?'

'Yes. Let's go and do something. Want to go to South Bank? John said he's taking Mary on a walk there for their first date tomorrow night. He says it's nice.'

'South Bank has the most epic atmosphere. Of course we're going. As if you haven't been yet.'

'Shut up!' We took our coats once more and headed down to South Bank on the Underground: going on the London Eye, watching the street performers and messing around on the fake grass furniture outside of the National Theatre before walking across Hungerford Bridge and going to Trafalgar Square and getting an ice cream, enjoying our last day of summer together.

'Where do you think my Dad is then?'

'He could be anywhere, Lily.' We decided to walk back to Baker Street, talking about anything, and my dad happened to crop up in conversation. 'Has Sherlock tried to find him?' I nodded. 'All I can say then is that he's turned invisible.' I hit him softly and he put his arm around my shoulders. 'He'll be found. And when he is, I'll make him pay for what he's done.'

'And who are you going to do that? I don't want you getting hurt. You know how dangerous he is.'

'Lily, compared to me, he's practically an old man. I do have quite a lot of muscle on me.' I laughed and Jack narrowed his eyes. 'Do you think it's funny? I'll even show you.' Jack rolled up his jacket sleeve and began tensing the large muscle there so it looked bigger than usual. I began giggling as a group of girls walking past us began staring at him strangely.

'Stop it, Jack.' He smiled and rolled his sleeve back down, taking my hand in his.

'School starts tomorrow.'

'Yeah.' I sighed and we began to walk down Baker Street, seeing Speedy's beginning to close for the day.

'Do you want me to come and pick you up in the morning?'

'No. You're staying away from Baker Street until my Uncle sees sense and chucks Irene out.'

'Does he have a crush on Irene or something?'

'No. I'm not sure what it is that he sees in her though. He seemed pretty cold with her last night though. Besides, I want him and Molly to give it a go. I know it won't be easy for them, but with Irene around, there's no chance of even Sherlock having a relationship with John. And I just mean friendship by that.'

'I know what you mean. Unlike the entire population of London, I don't actually think Sherlock and John are gay for one another. But that would be a cool twist.'

'A cool twist to what?' We stopped outside of the flat and I looked at Jack strangely. Jack opened his mouth and looked up at the windows to the living room and his eyes widened.

'Irene looks ready to kill both of us.' I turned to look and she was wearing my Uncle's dressing gown once more, looking at both of us with poison in her eyes. 'I should go. But I have a suggestion before I do.'

'Oh?'

'Let's make Irene jealous.' Before I could say another word, Jack put an arm around me back, let me almost drop to the floor then kissed me forcefully. I matched him equally and we were there for at least a minute before he pulled me up again. We looked up at the window to see that Irene had gone and Mrs Hudson was staring out of the window, looking like Sherlock had made her watch him do one of his experiments. 'I'll see you tomorrow then.' I waved Jack goodbye and went inside the flat when he disappeared from my view down the street.

'Lily, go and pack your bag for school tomorrow.'

'Yes, Uncle.' I scowled at Irene as I hung my coat on the back of the door and ran up the stairs.

'And get ready for bed too! Mrs Hudson wants to put the washing machine on.'

'I will!' I did as my Uncle asked, much to my disdain, and threw my clothes down the stairs so they landed outside of the living room. I logged onto my facebook to see that Kitty was distressed about something.

**What's up? xxxxxxx**

**Nothing. I'm fine **** xxxxxx**

I read back the message she had sent and looked closely at her wall to see that Nate had posted a rather long paragraph onto it saying how much he would miss her.

**Where's Nate going? xxxxxx**

**How did you work out that? xxxxxx**

**Your facebook page xxxxxx**

**It's too difficult to explain. I'll meet you for lunch tomorrow at school. Usual spot? xxxxxx**

**Yeah **** xxxxxxx**

The time ticked by and when it got to half ten, I put the book I was reading away and went across the hallway into John's room. 'John…'

'Lily…'

'Can I sleep in here tonight?' John looked at me quizzically, took off his slippers and sat down on his bed.

'Why?'

'I don't like Irene and you have a gun.' John laughed, only stopping when I saw the serious look on my face.

'Yeah, if you want. Go and get your duvet and pillow.'


	19. Chapter 19

CHAPTER 19-

'So, what's happened with Nate?' We were sat at our usual picnic table under the canopy outside eating lunch with "new pupil", Harry Cleaver. He was in actual fact a police officer who happened to look very young, who was keeping an eye on me and Jack at the Noble Griffin. There was a "new student teacher" too, who always seemed to be in the classes that Jack had when we didn't have the same lesson.

Kitty looked up from her sandwiches and sighed. 'He's gone to University. In Lancaster. That's ages away.'

'How many times? You both have Skype!' Clive shouted at his sister and I smiled.

'It'll be okay.' Kitty nodded regretfully and looked around.

'Where's Jack?' Harry tensed beside me and took out his mobile and texted the student teacher, Mr McGarrigle.

'He should be here soon. He needed the toilet.'

'Why didn't Mr McGarrigle go with him?' Harry shrugged his shoulders and took his lunch box out of his rucksack.

'I can't believe I got given this…' He looked down into his lunch box like a stroppy five year old. 'First I get given this mission, and then my girlfriend cuts the crusts off on my bread.'

'Your girlfriend made you your lunch?' Harry turned away from Kitty and shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

'Yeah, and she put in a note too…' Harry read the small piece of paper, shook his head and stuffed it in his blazer pocket and began to mutter something about his mum.

'That Mr McGarrigle is so uptight! He actually considered going to the toilet with me!' We all turned to face Jack and laughed. 'I'm pretty sure it's illegal for him to do that, but I managed to convince him to stay and talk to my P.E teacher. I'll ring Lestrade about it after school.'

'Since when did you have Lestrade's phone number?'

'Since you went into hospital.' He sat down next to me and kissed my cheek, wrapping his arm around me. 'You can't come around tonight, I have football practice, so me and Harry will take you home.' I nodded and lent against him, drawing patterns with my fingernail on his blazer, continuing to do so until the bell rang for the end of lunch. 'Do we have the same next lesson?'

'Yes. English, then biology.' Jack groaned as he knew Becky was in our biology class, but he pulled me from the picnic table to our English room, Harry following all of the way. We entered together; Jack going to sit with Adam towards the front, and I went to sit next to Harry at the back. He nodded at Jack to tell him to wait for him before leaving, and he rolled his eyes. We'd been back at school two weeks now, so we knew the deal. Irene was still around, so I made Jack stay away from the flat. Sherlock and John don't talk to her much, so I didn't get why she didn't just leave.

I tuned out of class until Miss Carr-Micheal started talking about careers. 'As you all know, every year we have careers week. You all dress up on the last Friday in your desired profession, and in the different years there will be a theme in each of the English classes. The year 10's will be writing a speech on their chosen career.' We all groaned but wrote the speech homework into our diaries for about a month's time. The bell rang and we all left, Jack taking my hand as we walked downstairs to biology, Harry trailing along behind.

'What do you want for your birthday?'

'I don't know. What do you want for yours?' I looked at Jack and he grinned, so I hit him in the stomach.

'Yours is in a week. Mine is in two months.' He laughed and squeezed my hand.

'I really don't know. A kiss will do.' I giggled and Becky shoulder barged me as she walked past. 'What is her problem?'

'I'm with you and she's not. Is Harry allowed to arrest her?' Jack smiled and shook his head.

'Probably not.' Harry came up beside us.

'I could arrange it. Might make this mission more interesting.' We turned to look at him and he sighed in displeasure. 'But she works for Moriarty!'

'It would arouse suspicion! Now, keep your voice down.' Jack turned back to me. 'What are you going to do for career's day?'

'I don't know, I've never really thought about what I'd do. I always thought I'd be locked up in my bedroom.' Jack kissed my forehead and wrapped his arm around me.

'Well, you won't be anymore, so you better start thinking.'

'What about you?'

'An author, I think.' We sat through the mundane lesson, having to listen to Becky's squeaky voice answer every single question. And I had to watch her pass glances at Jack.

'That was pure torture. Do you think my Uncle would let me drop biology?'

'Sherlock would kill you if you dropped a science, especially because of Becky. Has he found Moriarty yet?' I shook my head.

'I wish. It would make me feel safer. Security cameras and guards don't make Moriarty go away. He's still there, it just means the police have more of a chance of rescuing us if something happens.'

'It'll be okay soon, Lily.' I nodded and we began to walk down Baker Street, Harry trailing behind us, still muttering about his girlfriend and lunch box. 'Thought of a career yet?' I shook my head and Jack squeezed my hand. 'You're free, Lily. It's time to think about your future.'I nodded and turned to face him as we stopped in front of 221B.

'When you say think of your future, does that mean you'll be there?'

'Forever and always. I love you, Lily.'

'I love you too, Jack.' We kissed and he stepped away from me.

'I need to get to football practice. I'll see you tomorrow: the cinema, yeah?'

'Yep. Bye, Jack.' He smiled and left with Harry and entered the flat. 'Uncle, I need some help with my biology homework!' I shouted up the stairs as I ascended them, but stopped in the doorway of the living room when I saw Sherlock sat on the settee reading a book and Irene Adler sat calmly in his chair, with no clothes on. I turned and left to my room and struggled with my biology homework on my own.


End file.
